A Winter's Snowflake and a Summer's Radiance
by bloodycarcass
Summary: 12 years after Jack Frost joined to become a Guardian, a child all grown up may have been the real first person to believe and see him. But when the Man in the Moon chooses her to become more then a Guardian, Jack will be willing to help her find what connects to her and the reason why she was chosen.
1. Prologue

Rise of the Guardians

Winters' Snow Flake and summer's Radiance

Prologue

How Do you start such a story to begin with? It could have started long ago, but not too long ago when the man in the moon had appeared thousands of years ago in the sky for being punished by the gods for thievery. And for those many of thousands years gave a toll to rekindle his wrong doings. For he has given those that once lost life a chance for redemption in another, to do good, to protect the weak, to protect and give hope and happiness to the young. After all, the man in the moon still deals with his punishment today, but he forsakes himself to have those to be forsaken, given another chance he could never do.

So in year times, there came fables, stories, legends, but secretive tales that can only exist to those of open hearts and minds, to those that are young and blissful and full of faith. The man in the moon created them all. Gave them a destined life, some good or bad, but meant to shape mankind into anew. These fables and legends only existed to the young. Tiny and simple fables that are magical. St. Nick, Tooth Fairy, the Dream Maker, the Easter Bunny and belated but not overturned, Jack Frost.

Ah yes, Jack Frost, mischievous, trouble-making, joker, perceived to be jealous of children never noticing him, or so does the tale and the expressions say. In Fables he is a loner, flourishing with no obligations, and carefree. He starts the fun in the snow, but leaves behind crystal patterns on the windows and floor. They say that he is made of ice himself, and whatever he touches he makes it cold. But he is not always like what the fables say. In truth, Fables are long written rumors when it comes to Jack. A sprite of Winter, or a boy who just wants to have a fun? The Man in the Moon turned him to what he is not because of what he personifies, but what he did that made him become this.

In truth, Everyone started out human, perhaps even the gods, and you may wonder what made the gods, but no one has an answer for that. We just know this kind of story, that Jack was a kind and brave boy, in deep he was selfless and strong and willing to be sacrificed, which he did. He was a boy with a family, a home, a little sister, and a life. But he sacrificed himself for his faults to save his sister. And when he died, the Man in the Moon gave him another life for redemption, and named him Jack Frost.

There he lived his life alone, for when he tried to have those that are human around him to notice him, he was nothing but breath and shadow. A ghost to those that could not see him, and for a very long time no one did. No one could, he was 'unbelieved' Is what the tales would say. Though he caused so much fun and chaos of happiness and glee to children around him, he was…..so alone and so forgotten. Perhaps that was all he was, a fable written in a book, and nothing else.

For three hundred years this was what his life was, and every night Jack would look up in the dark starry sky and stare at the moon. He would ask why and beg for an answer, but the Man in the Moon didn't say anything. Jack could not die, could not be hurt or destroyed, but could be damaged and bruised. Deprived of social contact to the human world, he could not cover those bruises of loneliness he had, but could cover it with pranks and fun that he tried to believe is all that he had in him. He knew how to play with children well, but beside a curse of not being seen, he did not also have his memories of who he was before. He was a child, trapped in a three hundred year old body of air, and that's all he felt he was. Never to be believed in, so he can actually be seen, that is the true reason what Jack is now.

A guardian he was chosen by the Man in the Moon to be teamed with St. Nick, the Tooth Fairy, Sandman, and the Easter Bunny, realizing his role in life is to give pride and joy to children much like who he is. Before all this though, Jack was never seen by anyone, except unknowingly by one…..

In the winter year in hot predictable sunny California, was a suburban home in the valleys. Thanksgiving ended, and little four year old Marionette went around playing the front yard of her home in the grass. She had a golden red hearted locket bouncing on her flat chest as she ran around doing silly things in the grass with her stuff bunny, Baby. She did somersaults and touched the grass and dirt between her finger tips. Fascinated by the itchy feeling the green grass gave on her small palms. She was starting to sweat from all the active running she did so she took out her wagon filled with story books and started to look through the pictures, not knowing how to read, but guessing what is happening in each scene. Marionette was bored and tired but didn't want to go inside. She saw other kids in the street playing games but she didn't want to join them, for she felt being alone was more suitable, and being in another world. She looked through her picture book intently fascinated about the art and expressions each picture was giving. She turned a page to a snowy forest, saw children playing in the snow, and illustrations of snowflakes. Marionette didn't know what this was to be honest, but she knew it looked different, and guessed by the pictures the white powder came from the sky. Of course, that was hard to understand, she never saw such things come down from the sky before, not here in her hometown at least.

Then a droplet of white icy powder fell on her nose. She wiped it away and looked up. She saw white spots of fluff and coldness come whistle fully down from the sky like dropping a feather to the floor. She stood up on her stubby legs and put both her hands high up in the sky to catch them. Kids on the street stop playing to notice it too, but Marionette wasn't noticing what people were doing around her, just saw beautiful white flakes falling down on her like flower pedals. She danced around with her arms spread wide apart, spiraling like a ballerina, her summer dress of flowers and butterflies got wet and a bit soggy. People in the suburban neighborhoods came to look at the sky, to see snow falling in Southern California! Who'd a thought? Marionette couldn't stop spinning until she saw the sidewalk and the street suddenly glazing over with floral ice. It spread so quickly throughout the asphalt and cement that it was like watching a large snake leaving behind trails of skin covering. Soon the street was iced and trees and grass was filled with fluffy snow, Marionette wasn't sure how to react. Then she grabbed a handful of snow and threw it up in the air so it could rain down on her again. The cold icy flakes felt relieving on such a hot day, soon kids started making snow men in their shorts and housewives coming out in their aprons and dresses making snow angels. Other people came out trying to walk on the icy street and roller skated over it like it was their own ice rink. Marionette just ran through the snow and rolled around it like it was a fluffy bed. Looking up, she suddenly saw something flew by, quick like a bird flying for its life, she went over to see it, but saw on her front yard, it hid in the tree. Something or someone with a flash of blue or grey hid in the leaves and branches. Then Marionette heard her mother come out with a coat and a hat. "Mommy! Mommy! Look it's white!" Marionette said telling her mother the news of what she saw. "It's snow sweetie, it's actual snow," She said coming over running to get her daughter in a hat and coat. "Now you can play for just a little while, but were going to have to go inside soon, I don't want you catching a cold." Her mother assured her of her curfew. But Marionette wasn't listening even though she said Okay to have her mother stop talking so she can listen to her. "Mommy I saw something, a big bird in the tree!" "That's nice sweetie," her mother answered back.

"No, I mean not a bird," Marionette changed her mind trying to find the word so her mother can understand what she is trying to say. "I saw something big in the tree, I think it turned the floor white!" She said rephrasing her sentence. "It could be Jack Frost sweetie," her mother answered. "Who?" Marionette asked again.

"Jack Frost makes it snow, but be careful he nips your nose with a cold" Her mother warned her. Marionette didn't understand, but said yes anyways and ran back to the tree. She picked up snow and lift her arm up to the tree. She could see a dark figure hidden beneath the leaves and branches which were turning floral iced and leaves were turning yellow and red and soon falling down the tree, where she saw him high up looking down at everyone playing in the streets, not recognizing her. Marionette took a good look at him and memorized his face. The she said, "Sank You Jack Frosh for a…"She thought for a moment, "For stha snow!" She yelled up high to the tree, where she saw the boy's reaction turned to look down at her, eyes wide open. Marionette dropped the snow and took off her locket. She placed it hanging on the tree of a branch she could only reached sticking out to her short height. "Zis' is for you for making it beautiful!" she said yelling back for him up high to here. Then she saw her mother come out of the house, calling her name to come inside, which she obediently did running to her mother, her long pony tail bouncing up and down rapped in a red boy clip.

He watched her going inside and disappearing when he came jumping down the tree, to look at what the little girl left behind. A golden chain with a dangling gold and red heart locket had the name Marionette written inside with a picture of her. Hold it, the chain went icy and fell apart with flakes as the boy held the necklace by the locket. He looked over to the house the girl and her mother went into, wondering what just happened was true.

He wondered if she actually saw him, high up in the tree he didn't really get a close look at her face, maybe noticing she was looking at the direction he was in, but could it be that she saw him? He wondered for a bit, standing there thinking. Then and there, he decided to keep the locket, putting it over his neck and stuffing it under his blue sweatshirt, where the chain on the back of his neck turned to cold ice over the metal. He walked away though, having the wind blow him away, he flew to the next place to make fun and mischief. Believing that maybe one child did actually see him and knew his name.


	2. Chapter 1 Arriving in Seattle

Chapter 1: 14 years Later, Arriving in Seattle

What a long trip it was. Driving from California to Seattle, in a truck with junk and in the back seat drawing, writing, and doing what she can do to fight long hours of boredom. Marionette cannot get bored; she needed to do things more than once at the same time so she doesn't feel like falling out the window. Her dad and mom in the front seats of the moving truck while her in the back, with her art supplies, her favorite book to read since childhood, and of course lots of junk food and art books on painting and body anatomy. Her dad was retired, and her mom was switching jobs to work for the Bill Gates Foundation in Seattle. But that's not really why their driving away from California, after long hard thinking, Marionette could not stand the weather in California, and her parents could neither deal with the living expenses they had to pay to live in the state. So after sneakily getting her parents to decide on Seattle, they found a house over Christmas break they bought, perfectly beautiful and old fashioned house she was excited to move into. Being eighteen doesn't have the perks like people say anymore, a new life, Marionette wasn't on her own moving away, since her family felt it was best for her to attend Seattle University and live at home. Which Marionette, wise and easy going agreed to this, feeling with the economy attacking most of the schools, she felt that would be best, especially when moving to a whole new state.

Her bag was filled with good-bye gifts from her friends after they threw a good-bye party for her. And having raised money after putting together a garage sale of all her things, Marionette was ready to start a new life, knowing she will miss her friends back in California, but must look at the now with what's going on. And that would be Education. But honestly, Marionette was just an obsessed studier, she was a dreamer with a imagination, drawing creations from her mind, she had a rough time in her life dealing with her own shadows and artistic deviations. She was though a child still at heart, she still had her stuff Bunny Baby with her on her side in the car seat, she still read favorite Winter fables of the book she has since she was five, practically stained, hard covered with just cardboard, and grease stains from food, pages yellow with age, but she still wouldn't let go of the book. In all the fables she read of her book collection, the most dirty and yellowed was the pages telling the story about Jack Frost. She had been painting snow and portraits of her faded memory of meeting the boy. She believed in him to be real, and have been drawing his face ever since, trying to get better and better at drawing him realistically. For an 18 year old, she never once listened to other kids saying Santa and Tooth Fairy or the Easter Bunny wasn't true, because much like that magical snowy day, Marionette believed in anything. Ghosts, fairies, the Boogieman, angels, even the Man in the Moon, for his fable has been read countless times by Marionette in her fading book of fables.

What she did learn that she has been yearning her whole life was another snow day, and since Seattle is not only known for its rain, it occasionally snows there too. And what she wanted to do more than anything was to go ice skating. Her best friend that was practically her sister, gave her a pair of ice skates to try at a rink once, but it was closed down because the building owners couldn't keep up with their pay. So Marionette has been holding onto those ice skates for just that time to try them again. She had so much to do and try out in Seattle, she couldn't dare sleep. They were close to their new city, to their new home, and so were the moving trucks as well. But whenever she saw a droplet of rain on the car window, she pressed the window glass to go down, and she would peak her head out the window to feel the rained falling on her face, a refresh of cold needles hitting her skin felt like a soothing shower head pouring on the face like a massage. It was splendor until her dad told her to put her head back in the car and close the glass window. She had to wait longer until they reach the city. Then she could feel like exploring, her favorite thing to do in new places.

She had to wait for some time though, passing by felt like hours driving, and when she fell asleep hours before, her mother woke her up to show her something.

"Look out the window!" She said excited.

Marionette looked out to find droplets of snow falling, and then finally entering Seattle. She put down the glass window to place her hand out and to look at it, instantly melting to water. The cold water felt like a refreshment of awakening. Something She had never felt before. The smell, the feeling, it was all so new, and all so beautiful.

Passing through Seattle, they made there to Queen Anne, the neighborhood in which they will now spent the rest of their lives in. Marionette couldn't stop looking out the window looking out to the neighborhoods, people passing by like the snow was no news to them, walking like it was nothing to them. But she couldn't stay away from it. She felt like jumping out the car window to run around in it all day. "This is so awesome!" She yelled out the window. They were so close to their new home now.

Her father parked in the driveway of an old Victorian home, which was painted all old and brown looking, but to Marionette it was comforting. She looked around to see the place; the house was old, remembering when they looked at it, that it was built in 1889, a time in which Marionette wished to explore and learn. Oh how she loved History, and now she's finally living in one that holds most of a century in it. The house was at the end of a block; across they can see a view of the street and rural downtown ahead, something pleasant and nice to look at. Her father wanted to live near the ocean, but having towns and bus routes nearby was better, she didn't live close enough to a bus route that went near her neighborhood. She had to walk an hour to get there on her own in the hot sun by herself. Getting out of the car, she felt a cold breeze with snowflakes hitting her face, instantly melting from her body heat. She giggled with the chill hitting to her spine, and she looked first thing at how tall and tower-fill was her new home. Her parents opened the door of their new home, and it started out dark. The old wood of the floor creaked in response of them entering. Her mother switched on a light next to the door and Marionette could finally see how much wood the house was made of. But that would change when they finally have furniture to fill up the place. First thing she did was run up the stairs to find her bedroom, and down the hall she went with her bag walling in her hands excited. She chose the room that was fitting. There were four bedrooms, but only three of them. She found the room with a clear window viewing the front side of the house, where she could see the neighborhood and far off the sea as well. She could see behind the roofs of the other homes there were parks and rivers and plenty of lakes. She brought out her flashlight and placed it on the floor for light. Looking around her new room, it was large, for one person, but it was perfect for her, she knew where to put her art desk, her art supplies, her painting portraits, her canvases, and her easel. Here she could start painting everything she dreams of. Her closet was nice and long enough for new coats to take place of the not so warm ones. Near her door she could have a hook on the wall to hang the coat she wishes to wear, her winter flapper hats, and choosing of scarves as well.

Oh Marionette longed for this winter, and she was so happy to finally have it. She waited so long for this, she wasn't sure where to start without jumping for excitement. Then she heard outside the moving trucks came to park in front of the house. Here she went straight downstairs to see her mother looking around the kitchen.

"I'm gonna go explore!" Marionette said excitingly.

"Okay, but be back when it's dark, here's your new key," her mother said giving it to her.

Marionette went outside to their truck to find men taking furniture and boxes outside in crates and such to the house and through the garage. She grabbed another bag and went upstairs to open and take out her ice skates. She tied them together and place them over her should like she seen what people do in the movies, and she ran off, out of the house and running out into the streets. She had so much adrenaline in her after sitting for long hours in the car. Here she could run all day, and then she found herself running up hills to the forests, where she saw that she entered a frozen forest with a downhill of a lake, completely frozen. She slid down the hill to look at how stable the lake was. She wasn't a scientist of these, but she looked at a lot of pictures before having herself get killed. Observing the lake, she saw that it looked stable enough and she threw off her shoes to put on her skates.

She remembered she used to roller skate all the time when she was nine. Some said Roller Skating wasn't as different as Ice Skating; others told her it was very different. But she could only find out for herself. Before she went on the ice though, she looked up at the sky and put her hands together praying,

"Oh please, please Jack Frost, whatever happens to me, guide me, My only time ever seeing snow and I have to believe you did this, so guide me like you've done in all those stories I've read."

She stepped into the flat iced rink, and glided down with one push on the blade. Then when she felt she was slowing down, she put the other foot down to do the same. Here she kept going, keeping her balance on the ice, slowly she was getting faster at it, no falling, she just kept feeling like she was gliding, one by one on the blade she balanced on, she felt like she was flying. And then she tried to stop, only for a moment she swung her arms backwards then forwards, troubling at stopping until she moved foot to the side and she stopped instantly. She then gave out a great sigh of happiness, and continued again, trying to gain speed. When she felt it was easy, she suddenly felt like she was being lifted and did a spin on her ice skates and landed swiftly until falling down, losing her balance. Landing on her butt didn't hurt her though, because she felt like a special lift did something to her without her knowing.

"Jack!" She said out loud smiling with a sigh of happiness. She couldn't see anything, but she knew he was there. And he was.

Jack Frost, surprised at her knowing his name looked at her closely, but it was obvious she couldn't hear or see him, but she knew his name and everything. With his staff, half crystalized of ice, his blue eyes and silver hair shimmered in the light. His thin body leaned in closer to look at her face as she tried to get up. His blue sweatshirt covered in crystalized ice on his chest and at the end of his sleeves. His torn brown pants, weaved to stay on tight and not be torn at the ends were faded brown and short. Almost as if he's been wearing these pants since he was little, and has grown out of them. He looked bewildered at her, amazed in some ways.

"I know you," he said out loud, mostly to himself.

Jack lived a life of feeling alone, of no one believing in him, unable to see or hear him, so talking out loud wasn't anything new. But he put his hand in his sweatshirt to bring out the golden and red hart locket and opened it. Analyzing her face and the picture he saw they were similar.

"it's you!" he said surprised. "It's you, your the one who really saw me, who said my name!" He flew around excited as Marionette got up and started skating again. "Marionette, it's you," he said following her, next to her as she skated.

He laughed happy and relieved, almost like unbelievable thing just happened. He flew around leaving snow to fall and wind blowing, which made Marinette skating faster and faster.

Before it got dark, Marionette took a break and started to explore to neighborhood, realizing her ice skates really did a number of cuts and blisters on her feet. But she ignored it, still walking. When she stopped ice skating, she picked up some snow and threw it in the air like she did when she was young, spinning around and around practically dancing happy. Jack closely near her, created a snow flake from his finger tips and blew it over to Marionette where she saw it falling down and had her hands cupped for the snowflake to fall in her in them. When it did, she placed it straight to her face, putting it to her nose and it melted away from her face and she felt a sudden of inspiring happiness, like a mischievous fun epiphany came to her. She walked over near her house to see kids about in the age of elementary; they were playing in the snow. She saw they were having a snow ball fight and ran over impulsively. "Hey there!" she called over for them to see her. The kids all stopped when they saw her standing there, smiling.

"Do you mind if I play with you?" she asked them. Some of the kids looked at each other, a girl with big rimmed glasses asked, "Aren't you a little old to be playing with us?"

"Not really, I'm only eighteen, but you see I've never had a snow fall before!" She admitted, pleading.

The kids looked at her, jaw dropping surprised. "You haven't had a snow ball fight before?" a boy asked, with brown short hair and green eyes.

"No, I just moved here 2 hours ago, and it would be really fun if I have a snow ball fight, I don't care who, but this is the first time I've seen snow before, and I really want to play!" Marionette pleaded.

"Where are you from," said another kid, who looked Korean, with long black hair to his shoulders, shaped in a mop-like style.

"I've just arrived from Southern California!" Marionette answered.

The kids looked at each other wide eyed. "Then you gotta have a snow ball fight!" Another kid who was African American said.

"Great! do i just throw at someone or do we have teams?" She asked.

"Anyone you can throw it at, you just gotta dodge and throw it at anyone, and try not to get hit, if you do then you just gotta keep going. There are no rules of it at all," Explained the brown head boy.

"And I will start the pleasure of doing so, " Jack said as he gathered up a snow ball and blew at it, sparkling blue, and was going to throw at Marionette, but Marionette picked up a snowball faster and just threw it at some random kid, and the fun started up again.

Jack surprised at what Marionette did, gathered in the fight, making random snow flying everywhere for all of them to think each of them were throwing more ammo at each other. With his staff, he hit the snow, making it fly towards them, shaping as snowballs hitting them. Marionette ducked and threw and gathered as much as her feet in pain could. But she was having too much fun to feel the pain in her cut up feet. For it felt like an unbelievable dream come true.

Marionette tried running away from a snow ball the girl with glasses tried to throw at her but she ran into a person and fell on her nose. The other person she ran into also fell backwards and stood up brushing snow off him.

"Watch where you're going!" he yelled.

Marionette got up trying to say sorry, but the girl screamed at what she saw of her. "Your nose is bleeding!" She said.

The snow ball fight suddenly stopped as the rest of the boys ran over to see what happened.

"Your nose, it's got a lot of blood!" they said to her.

Marionette wiped her nose with her finger to find a streak of bright blood on it. The person she ran"Oh m into turned to realized what happened.

"Oh my gosh!" he said shocked. As so was Jack, after seeing Marionette, he was shocked at the person he ran into. The guy looked exactly like him, with brown hair and brown eyes.

"What the heck!" Jack yelled.

"It's okay, it's just a nose bleed," Marionette said calm to everyone and wiping her nose with her sleeve, only to be open wide that there was a lot of it on her sleeve.

"Your kidding, that's a gusher!" The guy said and he pulled out tissues and told Marionette to lift her head up high as he covered her bleeding nose.

Her face was dripping with blood and the kids looked scared. "Aren't you a little old to be having snow ball fights?" he asked her.

The brown hair kid got scared, "She asked us, we swear, she wanted to play with us!"

"It's my fault," Marionette agreed with the kids, "I've never had a snow ball fight before so I asked if I could play with them, I mean look at all this snow!"

"You've never had a snow ball fight?" The guy repeated with a question.

"No!" said the brown head boy, "She just moved here from Southern California!"

"Really," he said grinning; his crooked smile looked the same as Jack's. "What's a California girl doing in big rainy rural Seattle?" he then asked.

"School," Marionette answered, "Getting away from over paid loans and such."

The guy nodded understanding. "What school?" he then asked, Marionette put her head to regular view as she felt the blood from her brain gong back down.

"Seattle University," She answered wiping her nose, seeing that maybe all the blood was gone.

"Me too! I'm Carvin Cayne." He let out his hand to shake Marionette's.

She shook it limply to keep the other hand clogging her nose from bleeding anymore. He laughed at this reaction and continued to stare at her. Jack got in between them, staring closer at his face. But was interrupted when the brown head boy called out, "My name is Johnny!" he said.

"Nice to meet you Johnny," Marionette answered back. She took the tissue away from her face, taking a sniff to make sure there was no blood blocking her air waves. "My name is Marionette," she placed out her hand to shake Johnny's.

"Johnny, can I have a rematch next time?" Marionette asked. "Sure!" he said automatically happy. "And do you guys know how to ice skate?" she asked the kids and Carvin.

"I do," Said Carvin interested. "I don't," said Johnny and the other kids.

"Well I just learned it!" Marionette said. "How about I teach you guys tomorrow then? because I gotta go now," Marionette admitted.

"Why?" Carvin asked looking a little disappointed.

"It's getting dark and I promised my mom to be back before," Marionette answered looking at her wrist watch.

"Where do you live?" Johnny asked.

"Um," Marionette said as she looked behind Carvin to find her house just down the street with the moving truck still parked there, and the lights on that she could see through the windows bright and yellow. "Just down the street right there where that big truck is!" she pointed over to her new home.

"Oh you're the new neighbors then," Carvin seeing the house. "I live four houses down from you," Carvin said.

"Great." Jack muttered looking annoyed.

"And I live here!" Johnny said pointing to his two story house which literally is where everyone was standing infront of.

"That's great were all neighbors then!" Marionette said happy. "Jack Frost has been so good to me today," she then said looking up at the sky.

Jack stood next to her, smiling hearing his name be heard again. He knew she believed in him, but he knew why he couldn't see or hear her, she was eighteen, and not considered a child anymore like the time he first saw her when she was four. All those memories of that time came flowing back to him.

"You believe in old fairytales?" Carvin asked.

"He's not a fairytale," Marionette retorted, he's a real spirit that brings winter all around us, snow and fun times like we were just having. He makes the fun out of snow days."

Jack's eyes widen with happiness and blessing, almost like he didn't know how to react.

"Yeah I know, I sang alot of the Christmas songs when I was little," Carvin said back. Jack glared at him.

"Whose Jack Frost?" Johnny asked.

Marionette kneeled down to Johnny's height. "He's the most wonderful person you could ever imagine, he's real, I saw him when I was little. He makes everything snow, he makes the cold winds into blizzards and snow storms, he makes the snowflakes that fall down from the sky, the cold crystal on your windows, the he holds the elements of snow and enjoyment." Marionette explained. "He's the reason why we think we had so much fun playing the game, he made it fun when it felt were being hit by snowballs everywhere!"

Johnny's eyes widen, "Really?" probably realizing that the snow ball fight did feel like they were extra over powered by snow balls.

Jack leaned on his staff smiling, "Oh she's right," he said. "It was all me, and your welcome." Jack kneeled down next to Marionette, "And are you sure you can't see me?" he asked.

"I'll tell you more stories about him tomorrow, okay?" Marionette made a promise.

Johnny could only look excited and nod, realizing he and his friends need to go inside. "Good night!" He yelled back to them. Both Carvin, Marionette and Jack waved back to Johnny and his friends.

Marionette turned to Carvin, "Thank you for the tissues, I'm sorry I ran into you."

"Don't be, I'm sorry you had to run into me," Carvin said back.

"Me too," Jack added.

The both of them started walking down the direction to Marionette's house.

"So your nose is okay?" Carvin asked.

"I think so, "Marionette answered and the she added, "It's so beautiful out here, in the snow when the sun is setting." She looked behind her to see the sky was turning pink and orange while the north side was dark and cloudy.

"You really like snow don't you?" Carvin asked. "I only dream about it every day back at my old state." she said back.

"So what do you do then Marionette? I mean what are you planning to do once your out of college?" Carvin asked changing the subject.

"I paint!" Marionette answered back gleefully. "I also like to sing, read, sketch, um, I'm planning to sell my art!" Marionette answered happily with too many things on her mind to explain.

"Wow, your pretty versatile," Carvin answered.

"I don't think so, what about you?" she asked him.

"Me? I'm not versatile," he said back, "No! I mean what are you planning to major into?" Marionette rephrased her sentence.

"Oh! well I'm going into Engineering with Math and Science." He answered.

"That sounds boring," Jack muttered.

"That sounds boring," Marionette answered.

Jack laughed when he and her were thinking the same thing.

"Yeah, but it pays well," Carvin answered back.

Jack looked at him, squinting one eye, "How can this guy look exactly like me and be nothing like me at all. What a bore!"

"I rather do something that i enjoy doing, having fun, working at play, that is life for me." Marionette answered.

"Then you're on the right path!" Jack answered to her. He jumped up on the fence next to them, on Carvin's side.

"As long as it pays well, I'm sure you'll do fine," Carvin answered back. Jack continued to scowl at Carvin, walking next to the two of them.

"Hey, since your new here, why don't I take you out to coffee sometime?" Carvin asked. "I mean Seattle is best known for their coffee, why don't I take you out to the best coffee place I know."

"When?" Marionette asked.

"Tomorrow if you're free," Carvin suggested.

"But I promised to teach Johnny to roller skate and tell him stories," Marionette declared.

"Yeah, see she's busy having fun, she doesn't have time to talk about math and engineering, "Jack grinned, happy to find Marionette declined.

"What about tomorrow night?" Carvin suggested again.

"Okay then," Marionette agreed.

"No! You're supposed to be busy!" Jack protested to her.

"Cool so I see you tomorrow night, at your house?" Carvin asked happy.

"Sure! it's a deal!" Marionette said shaking his hand.

"On the other hand, maybe I shouldn't be worried," Jack cheered noticing that Marionette doesn't know Carvin was flirting with her.

She waved bye to him and went to the few feet she had between her on the street and the front of her new home.

Coming inside she announced that Jack Frost was good to her today, and her parent who were sitting at their kitchen table that they had the movers place were eating take out. Her mother smiled while her father continued eating. "You still think Jack Frost is around?" her mother asked.

"He's always around," Marionette answered.

Jack got through the door and jumped up high sitting on the banister high away for the family to be heard in the kitchen.

"He's immortal, he doesn't ever go away," Marionette preached.

She talked on about her day and how amazed there was so much snow around and such, and that she met a boy and kids let her snow ball fight with them, she talked about Carvin and Johnny, and about how cool it was to ice skate the first time. She sat down with her parents as they gave her take out that they bought for her, but she was too busy talking that she never ate her dinner. She ended up tired though, going to her new room finding her mattress on the floor. She had to get a new bed here since her old one was falling apart back at home. She opened a box she labeled quilts, and brought out four bed covers, one black and dotted, one blue with snowflakes on it, another was purple and white with flowers and leaves, and quilt that was blue and white, handmade by her friend's grandmother gave to her. She lopped down in the bed, and wrapped herself like a burrito in them. Shutting off her flashlight, she closed her eyes. Jack was already in the room watching her, he came over to her to kneel on his knees, looking at her. He gripped his staff tightly, so many feelings came at him at once though, and he was touching the ground and saw that his florental ice path was on her bedroom floor. But he didn't seem to care; he pulled the blankets closer to her, leaving handprints of ice on the quilt. Trying to keep her warm, but failing in the process.

It had been twelve years since he's been a guardian. Since he had Jamie finally believe in him, but to find out there was someone there all along, he felt almost saddened. A lot still did not know him, but one, who seems to be older now, and he came too late for her. That night, Jack felt so sad, he made it snow in Marionette's room.


	3. Chapter 2 I Always Believed in You

Chapter 2 Always Believed In You

Across the world, Jack flew in what was night back in Seattle was day in Europe. He went straight to where the first place the wind took him too, and he landed straight on a gargoyle's head from part of the Notre Dame in Paris. There he saw plenty of people walking by, made his way dragging his staff on the floor as the wind blew him close to the surface. He made swirls of slippery ice taking over the grass and cobbled floor and steps. He laughed his way through making snow fall instantly at the touch of jumping high up and down and flying on top of cars, freezing windows and people sipping their tea and coffee in the cafes just when they were about to drink them.

He froze pouring water that was poured by a woman trying to water her plants, but the frozen poured water in place was stuck to the plant so when she tried to pull out her strainer, all she could do was struggle as the water and the strainer was frozen in place, she tried to lift the stranger but lifted out the whole plant and its roots from her flower pot. Jack's laughs and chuckles echoed in mere loudness to him, but silent to everyone who didn't see him.

He then went out to fly into the sky to see above the city of Paris, and took him dashing away in the air to England where he flew down into Northern London's streets, and straight close to the surface, he froze a red British tour buses tires before it started to drive off. His ice and winds froze whatever he felt like to touch, with swirls of Lyrical blue and white icy shimmer, he made a school's outdoor pool turn to ice, blowing cold winds into horses' faces and then went off to where the wind blew him away again. It couldn't be any more fun until he waited for the night to come close in Europe and he would ask the wind to take him home or to Seattle.

He felt he needed to go back to Seattle soon, he felt like making more fun for Marionette in the snow. Her reaction to all of the winter's seasons made him feel like he needed to show her the best he can ever do. He wouldn't admit it, but he was so happy to hear her talk about him, not because it was obviously egotistical of him, but it was a warming feeling for his icy heart to hear someone say his name, talk about him as if did exist, and because he felt believed in. And if Marionette could help others around her believe too, like Johnny and his friends, it would be like Jamie and his friends too. Even though it's been twelve years, the tale of proof for Jack to be believed in could only be reached so long and far as it can where Jamie and his friends grew up to tell the rest to believe Jack Frost is real. And that was pretty much back at home, in Berguss, Virginia. Where Seattle Washington is on the other side of North America, some place even Jamie couldn't have somehow let it reach that far. It only an amount of kids could believe and such, but it's hard when kids are changing sometimes.

Soon Jack came straight out to Romania and then to Russia, after the night started to slowly appear, Jack asked the wind to take him to Seattle, and then he flew up in the air and high up, closely reaching Seattle, where the morning just arrived.

Back in Seattle, early the morning, Marionette and her parents went to the nearby gym to work out, then her father went off to a Home Depot to look for some fixing repair tools for shining wood and repainted walls. While her mother and her went to a market to grocery shop. Moving just in yesterday, they had no food in the refrigerator that was plugged in, except for Marionette's left over take out that she didn't eat last night. It was hard to believe that a day yesterday passed by and she woke up with smell of cold snow in her room. She had so much to do today, she had to shop for food with her mother, shop for a bed, some new art supplies and she wanted to sign up to have a space at the town fair next week to sell her painted canvases and water color portraits. But she also had to teach Ice Skating, tell stories and maybe have more fun in the snow again today with Johnny and his friends. And almost forgot about Carvin inviting her to coffee. So, maybe not so bad if she thought about it for a second. She just hoped it continued snowing, it was only the beginning of March, and she knew Jack Frost made the snow come on random times of the year, even if it wasn't winter time.

At the market place she saw a flyer for the fair and went to the town mayor's office to ask for a sign up on a tent space. Luckily, she got the last one, so she was able to run back to the market place to see her mother again before missing anything.

"What do you want for dinner tonight?" Her mother asked her.

"Wait, I thought most of this food was going to be dinner?" Marionette thought seeing the food cart practically half filled.

"Some, but I also wanted to get some makings for lunch as well," her mother went on, but Marionette felt bored by the conversation and saw outside through the glass doors of the grocery store it was falling snow.

"Mom, it's snowing again!" Marionette pointed out looking excited.

"I know, it's strange, your father talked to one of our neighbors, said it's never snowed this much in Seattle before. Especially with Spring coming soon, they said it's the strangest weather they ever had," her mother wondered talking having a little worry in her voice.

"I keep telling you it's Jack Frost, he's pranking Seattle's weather and the Leprechaun," Marionette assured telling her mother she really had nothing to worry about.

"Honey," her mother started to say, but stuttered a bit. "A-Arent' you getting a little old now, talking about fairy tales and Jack Frost? I mean you are starting college in a month now."

Marionette could only roll her eyes in frustration, "No, I'm not getting old."

"But you're starting college, and if you keep talking about these things, you won't be able to make friends or get a job or anything. People are gonna start saying mean things and think your strange," her mother almost pleaded for an understanding to her daughter as she shuffled with cereal boxes.

"Just because I believe their real, will make them real," Marionette tried to explain. "I mean, who cares what other people think, They and you can't stop me from believing! And besides, I've been telling good stories to kids, I'm gonna help one of the neighbor's kids to ice skate, and he wants to hear all about the stories I talk about."

"Is this that Carvin boy?" her mother asked.

"No, that's Johnny, Carvin lives four houses down from us, he's the one who invited me to have coffee with him," Marionette corrected.

"So a boy asked you on a date?" her mother said surprised.

"No," Marionette moaned feeling annoyed with the conversation. "He just invited me to coffee, look can we please stop talking about this!" Marionette pleaded. "I know I'm growing up mom, I know what I want to do, but that doesn't mean I can't go back to the nostalgia that made me who I am today. Believing in them gives me hope that I can be happy forever. And I don't want to have that taken away because I'm going to college. I can be responsible and still feel like I can go to Never land and have Santa come and put presents under the Christmas tree, I can tell my future kid that the tooth fairy comes for teeth and if you're really good will give you a dollar or more, and I can still make sure the Sandman will give me nice dreams, and fairies exist and everything! Can't it just be that way?" Marionette pled with a exhaustion and aggravated expressions.

Her mother picked the cereal and place into the cart and sighed, "I just want you to realize your surroundings. Moving here is a new start for you, and you've had a rough time in California, I just don't want old habits and regrets come back to you and leave a mess behind and hurt you." Her mother explained with sincerity.

"I know that, and that's why now you gotta also trust me," Marionette reassured her mother.

"So what do you know you're going to do?" Her mother asked her, now pushing the cart to another aisle and Marionette falling her to the fridge item section.

"I wanna paint what I see in my dreams, I wanna show people what I dream about and think all the time, you know?" Marionette explained feeling at ease already.

"And what's that?" Her mother asked as she opened the frigid door to look at some frozen package greens and fruit.

"I wanna tell people through my art that what I feel, express my pain and happiness. I wanna be able to make the most beautiful thing ever that when someone goes and stares at it, they start to cry with tears of joy," Marionette couldn't have felt more inspired then by talking about her dreams. "I wanna open an art gallery one day, and show the world my work about magic and escape, like Thomas Kinkade. I've always felt like I could escape and live in those places he painted. I could do the same with mine, but with more imagination and someplace magical and unbelievable, I wanna paint snow and Jack Frost, I want to paint my heroes in all those fables I read, I really want to bring back the culture that everyone seems to miss, so when they look at mine, they can feel it's a new kind, with a sense of prosperity and belief."

"Mhm, that's nice Sweetie," her mother said reading the ingredients in a frozen dinner meal people can warm up on just the stove.

"Mom!" Marionette moaned disappointed, "you weren't listening were you?"

"I was! you want to paint like Thomas Kinkade, that's fine sweetie but you gotta go to school for that." Her mother assured her.

"Yeah, you weren't listening," Marionette muttered. "I'm gonna go walk or something."

"Where ?" Her mother asked.

"Oh you know, probably to home or the park. I need some air. I'll meet you at home." Marionette said sadly.

"Well sweetie, just so you know, I'm on your side." Her mother added.

Marionette gave a weak smile, and she walked on out of the market. It was early morning, Johnny and his friends were either still at home sleeping or at school. She felt frustrated with herself more than her mother. The life she set up was hard to live, and her mother was right on some parts, she was getting older, starting college, it didn't feel right though. She hated high school and junior high, but what she had as a child, the things she saw and believed and appreciated are the things she misses the most.

Walking out with the snow falling, she breathed in and out with relaxed body and a empty mind. The smell of the frost and the water streets on the asphalt smelled so clean and nice, she felt it was the nicest thing to have. Southern California was so dusty, so when it did rain once in a while, the smell of the clean streets and cement felt so nice, she could breathe better than before. Now in Seattle, she felt clean and happy. Ever since she came, Marionette didn't have one care on how she looked, realizing she hadn't looked in a mirror of herself in a while now. She hadn't put on mascara or make up since they left California, and seeing her reflection in the pitch black stores was strange. She saw how frizzy and wavy her brown hair was, her green and blue eyes of the ocean became more Gray and light blue, her face whiter and clearer, and she lost so much weight, the coat she was wearing looked way too big on her. Her lips were pinker and her face thinner; she remembered how big she used to be in high school because of the free food she used to get all the time when volunteering at the cafeteria. Now she's healthy looking with a touch of plain flare, she really started to wonder if walking out in public was a good idea. But then she had an idea when she got home, and when she ran in the snow, she felt like painting it.

Going home into her bedroom still filled with boxes, she sat on her bed and took out her sketch book and box of sketch pencils and charcoal. She drew whatever came to her mind suddenly. And did it for about ten minutes drawing at least eight or nine sketches, ripping them off, pinning them to the wall to see which one came to her the most to paint into a canvas. Then a sudden memory jolted her and she could finally draw what it is that she's been trying to do for so long. When she put the tenth one up on her wall, she took a deep breath feeling like she accomplished that long drive of frustration hitting her to the very ends of her heart. She felt better suddenly, and then she left home, walked back into town, and seeing her mom about to drive past her on the street. She stopped next to her seeing her mom rolled down the window.

"Sweetie are you okay?" She asked worried.

"Yeah, I'm just gonna go get some art supplies now," Marionette assured her mother.

"Then why do you have your skates with you?" Her mother asked.

Marionette didn't realize that she had her skates with her around her arm as well as her satchel with her money and carrier for her new art supplies.

"Oh, I must of grabbed them without realizing it, that's okay, I'll skate my way back," Marionette mentioned thinking out loud.

"Well alright, but how are you going to skate back home?" Her mother asked.

"There's a river that's long enough from down town to our house," Marionette lied, not sure if that's even true.

"I don't think that's safe," her mother told her.

"Mom, I'll be fine, if the ice ends up too fragile, then I'll walk home, no big deal." Marionette assured her mother to keep driving, there was someone behind her and she wasn't supposed to be in a loading sidewalk, so her mother waved back agreeing and drove on back home.

Why did she lie to her mother suddenly? That was odd of her to do, especially when there was no reason to. But Marionette wondered as the snow falls that maybe her subconscious wanted her to skate some more, maybe to get her prepared for when Johnny and his friends come back from school.

She went on downtown to find the art supply shop that she saw when they first drove by here yesterday to their house. She was happy to have such a good memory on where it was, or she would have never found it.

Marionette didn't know why, but she hurried herself, because she felt the snow wouldn't last long today, what if Jack Frost didn't see anyone playing in the snow and he made it stop snowing? She got worried by that sudden thought, and even though it was early in the morning still, around eight or seven-forty, she felt she needed to skate in some more before Johnny gets out of school, and she still needs to paint, draw, unpack and make more canvas paintings for the fair she signed up for.

She got what she needed, paint, markers, new brushes, new watercolor canvas portraits, pastels, shading colors of grey and black markers, tape, and just for fun, glitter and jewel stickers, to add something unique to her portraits. She collected everything in five minutes tops, placed everything that could in her satchel and ran her way to the frozen river where she saw just up ahead, past her the down town square. People were already skating, having fun, so she joined in quickly, putting on her skates, ignoring the hard blisters already cutting through the healed skin from overnight, and she skated off to into the frozen river where everyone else was, and she felt like she was roller skating again, it came to her normally and she felt alive.

Being in the cold breeze, seeing her breath into fog in front of her, it was an exhilarating feeling, and surprisingly did find that her lie was really truth full. The river was long enough that it reached pass her the corner of Johnny's neighbor's backyard, that she could see ahead had an open gate to walk through. She could walk on pass Johnny's home and walk back to her house. She loved how close everything was.

Skating along, she didn't see, but Jack Frost flew by, passing her, seeing all the canvases she was carrying. "Whoa, what are you doing with all that stuff?" he asked.

He followed her to her house and went inside with her. When she finally was able to put her art supplies away, her art desk and easel was already in place. So she unpacked excitingly, finding all her other fable and fairy tale books to put on her book shelf. She put up art posters, put away clothes, was able to place some furniture supplies in her room, like her desk lamp and her coat and hat rack. She had everything she placed in her room, and the only thing missing was an actual bed, she doesn't think she can be sleeping on her mattress on the floor for long. But she was finished by the time Johnny's school was out, and she ran over to meet him when he and his friends came walking home.

They went to the frozen lake where Marionette first tried out her skating, and got everyone, even Johnny to come on the ice at once. She taught them each one by one how she did it, holding their hands, leading them, and then letting them go to see how well there doing on their own. Jack watched enjoying the view of them all trying to skate. By the time everyone got tired, Johnny's friends all went home, but Johnny wanted Marionette to stay so she can tell him stories. Going by to Johnny's house, Marionette met Johnny's little four year old sister Abby. She sat them both down and asked them what they wanted to know.

"Tell us about Jack Frost!" Johnny asked excitingly.

Jack sat down on the fence, listening curiously.

"Well there's a lot to know about him. Did you know he's considered to be an artist? He could fly when the wind blew and he could control it, so he would fly into towns late at night painting beautiful frost designs on windows and over the winter leaves and grass. In the springtime he makes small mirrors out of puddles, hence why we can see our reflection in the water. In the fall, he makes the leaves tumble down from the trees in order to prepare himself for his winter art. But the biggest of all is that he loves to make the fun out of snow days." Marionette told.

"Did you also know he's also a hero?" Marionette asked Johnny and Abby as they started to wonder off thinking.

"How so?" Johnny asked.

"Well there was him trying to rescue the Frozen Princess cursed by her sister..." Marionette went on that Jack Frost was busy on his snow days when he came across a wandering princess trying to unmask the curse she was beheld upon by her evil sister. She had to find a way to undo the curse before she turns completely frozen. Jack decided to help her and they journeyed to a secret ice palace where then they met the Frozen King who blackmailed the freezing princess to marry him if she wants the curse to be undone. If they didn't, then they will die, but Jack denied this, and decided to fight their way out, only finding the evil sister was in control of the Frozen King, so Jack went off to defeat her but must try to stop the Frozen King first before the Princess becomes completely frozen.

Jack didn't realize he came closer to listening to the story, obviously Marionette was making most of it up, but a lot of it was true about him, he never realize that the things he did for 300 years was artistic, the things he did for fun and pleasure was all he did for the past 300 years because he wasn't sure how what he was meant for before he became a Guardian. But Jack for once in his life felt special, these stories made him feel like he can exist again. And for a while, being a guardian meant he could be believed in, but in this way, it felt he could be alive. And when Marionette talked about him rescuing the frozen princess and defeating the Evil Sister and Frozen King, his heart lit up like the first time in ages, Jamie hugged him and he didn't know how to control his feelings. Right now he couldn't either, he felt appreciated, and continued to listen.

Marionette ended the story with Jack being able to lift the curse off the Princess and said that if you believed in him whenever in winter or spring and you find yourself in trouble, always count on Jack Frost to be there guiding you, he can save your life, whether you just needed fun or a chance to stay alive, he's like a Guardian and he will protect you.

Jack felt his heart stop, but when Johnny asked curiously, "Could he be here right now?"

"Maybe," Marionette said, "But you can believe in him, and when you do, then you can be able to see him."

"Can you see him?" Johnny asked.

Marionette felt a little sad but covered it up with a neutral expression. "I did when I was really little; I gave him my locket after giving me the snow day I never had. But I suppose I can't see him anymore because I'm older."

"Will I not be able to see him when I grow up?" Johnny asked worried suddenly.

Marionette lift Johnny up to hug him and sit on her lap, "Hey don't think that way, we can always look like we've grown up, but deep down we can always be the way we want to be, a child like you, or Abby, whichever, doesn't mean we've really grown up," she assured him. Abby went to Marionette's side to sit on her lap and to have a hug too. "Always Believe, and you will see everything."

When it came later, Johnny invited Marionette into his house to play, so they played with air planes and toys, they played house and robbers and cops, and then they acted out the story that Marionette told, having Johnny play Jack Frost, Abby as the frozen princess and Marionette as the Frozen King and Evil Sister. Marionette then taught them how to make paper Mache green clovers for St. Patrick's Day and for fun, made hanging snowflakes that they wrapped around their shaded lamps so when it turned on, blue and glitter snowflakes would reflect on their walls. Marionette made a zoetrope for Abby when she gets scared at night. Johnny helped her tell what designs Abby would like, and Marionette cut them out with chisel and placed them over with a small lamp to reflect the images, and decided to make it into Praxinoscope to help Abby go to sleep faster. When Abby fell asleep, she took Johnny to bed as well. Jack watched closely, as Marionette played with the children that slowly got tired from all the activities.

"Okay, off to bed, I called your mom and she said this is the exact time that you go to bed," Marionette claimed as she watched Johnny get into bed.

She looked at the collection of stuffed animal toys and figurines he had. She picked up a stuff bunny that looked alot like her stuff bunny Baby, and gave it to Johnny. "His name is Mr. Toes," Johnny introduced.

"I like him, but I thought I was getting too old to sleep with a stuff animal," Johnny explained why Mr. Toes was with the collection of other figurines and animals he grew liking when he was young.

"You're never too old to have a friend that keeps you safe," Marionette explained, "Especially when you have trouble sleeping."

Johnny tucked Mr. Toes in next to him, and Marionette helped tuck Johnny in too. She was about to turn off his light when Johnny stopped her.

"I want you stay for a little bit until I fall asleep," Johnny said.

Marionette sat down on his bed, "What do you want me to do, Sing to you so you can go to sleep?" Johnny weakly nodded sort of embarrass to admit it.

"Oh Okay!" Marionette realized that was exactly what he might needed. "Well let's see what song I can sing, I haven't sung in front of someone for a long time."

Johnny snuggled in with Mr. Toes patiently waiting.

"Okay, I got one!" Marionette stated. And started to sing a lullaby, peaceful enough to slip Johnny into softly sleep.

"Dream by night

Wish by day

Love begins this way

Loving starts

When open hearts

Touch and stay

Sleep for now

Dreaming's how

Lover's lives are planned

Future songs

And flying dreams

Hand in hand

Love it seems

Made flying dreams

So hearts could soar

Heaven sent

These wings were meant

To prove, once more

That love is the key

Love is the key

You and I

Touch the sky

The eagle and the dove

Nightingales

We keep our sails

Filled with love

And love it seems

Made flying dreams

To bring you home to me

Love it seems

Made flying dreams

So hearts could soar

Heaven sent

These wings were meant

To prove, once more

That love is the key

Love is the key

You and I

Touch the sky

The eagle and the dove

Nightingales

We keep our sails

Filled with love

Ever strong

Our future song

To sing it must be free

Every part

Is from the heart

And love is still the key

And love it seems

Made flying dreams

To bring you home to me"

Jack had listen the whole way, watching Marionette tuck Johnny into bed more, and slowly turned off his light, and closed the door, where she went downstairs hearing Johnny's parents come in from work. "There all in bed right now, so you don't need to worry."

"Really," the mother said surprised. "How?" she asked curious.

"Well, I made a little praxinoscope for Abby to fall asleep faster, and Johnny asked me to sing to him," Marionette answered.

Johnny's mother looked as surprised as she was shocked. "Can I please hire you?" she then asked not even to bother about how much the pay.

"I guess, I mean I could babysit after school when you guys come home late," Marionette suggested.

"Deal!" Johnny's mother boasted and they shook on it.

Coming home, she forgotten all about Carvin, when she saw him waiting outside in the cold.

"Oh great," Jack muttered forgetting about Carvin as well. He followed her from Johnny's home and decided to follow her around again until she fell asleep like last night.

"Carvin!" Marionette shouted.

He turned around, smiling, having his hands in his pockets, and arms in to keep himself warm, he was wearing a beanie and a scarf where he had his mouth covered and a long black coat with a old fashion satchel around his arm.

"Sorry, I totally forgot. I was babysitting Johnny and Abby," Marionette explained.

"You babysit them now?" He asked almost sarcastically.

"Yeah, their mom hired me just now actually," Marionette answered.

Carvin looked surprised, but not as surprised as keeping himself warm, he gave her a look that he's been probably thinking about for maybe more than ten minutes.

"Want coffee?" She asked him reading his expression.

"Yes please," Carvin said shivering. They started walking off, with Carvin in the lead and Jack walking behind both of them.

"If this guy makes a move, I swear I'll keep him feeling cold for the rest of his life!" Jack threatened, keeping that a full on promise.

Marionette guess that Carvin was taking her to Starbucks, but when she asked, Carvin scoffed, "That's not coffee, that's a cheap off brand of real good coffee."

They went into a cafe called The Good Ol' Joe, and Carvin looked relieved that the heater was on. He ordered two hot peppermint St. Patrick's mochas and they both sat down near a window where Marionette felt comfortable watching the snow fall. Jack watched from outside, trying to hear what they were saying, he would go inside, but a part of him doesn't want to, and while he watched them chatter on, he made sure Carvin wasn't making any moves, but he was giving her looks which Marionette didn't seem to notice. After a while it felt to Jack, they came outside, and started walking home.

When the lights came on as darkness steeped into the sky, Marionette could see Christmas decorations still lighted up around the down town area and the streets. "Oh wow, does this place keep Christmas lights up all year round?" Marionette asked.

"These lights?" Carvin looked up at the decorated street lamps of white lights and trees, making them dotted bright orbs in the dark.

"These aren't the Christmas lights, the Christmas lights they put up is everywhere and practically covers the streets, it looks like Las Vegas here."

"Really?!" Marionette asked excitingly.

"Yeah, when Christmas comes around you'll see," Carvin promised her.

"I love Christmas lights, I love everything about winter." Marionette admitted.

"I can see that, you know what I love?" Carvin asked. Jack gripped on his staff, about ready to attack.

"I love the sun," Carvin admitted. "So I think your very lucky to come from the Sunny State."

"Well you can go there and take my place, because so far I'm staying here!" Marionette instigated.

"It's never snowed this much before, and this long." Carvin changed the subject, dragging his thoughts.

"I guess Jack Frost really likes it here, of course when Easter arrives, the Easter Bunny is gonna be mad if he still makes it snowing," Marionette thought out loud. Jack could only laugh remembering how long his Guardian team mate Bunnymund held a grudge since he made a blizzard storm in 1968, Easter Sunday.

"So what's with you and this Jack Frost thing anyways?" Carvin asked now curious about the one thing that makes Marionette strange and different out of everyone else.

"When I was four, I met him and he made it snow the first in a hundred years in California." Marionette confessed.

"It snows in Southern California last time I heard from someone," Carvin informed.

"In the mountains," Marionette corrected him, "Not in the valleys where the Santa Ana Winds come and go each spring."

Jack felt a bit boasted to find Marionette sticking up for him.

"How do you know you really saw him? What if you saw some other strange person who you thought looked like him? Or for that matter, how do you know what he looks like?" Carvin asked, almost challenging Marionette's belief. Marionette glared.

"So how do you know when the sun is going down, or when the moon is going to rise? Don't you believe in the fact they exist, or do you just think it's a just a strange thing everyone sees?" Marionette asked, challenging him back.

"Because I see them every day, no one sees Jack Frost," Carvin said back being realistic.

"Your wrong, everyone sees Jack Frost, they just don't notice he's there, he's those kinds of beings that are standing in front of your nose but you don't seem to notice him," Marionette explained practically sounding like she was praising. "And besides, reality doesn't create hope, it just shows what's there and the truth, whichever is bad or good, Jack Frost and all those other beings in the world hidden from us who don't believe, give hope and understandings to us, and help us have wonder, good memories, dreams, new beginnings, and fun. Reality is just there like facts, there's only one right thing, and it's not always something we prefer."

Carvin didn't answer back for a while thinking, and Marionette stared off looking at a lit up park decorated with Christmas lights. She saw there was a ice rink there, and started walking towards it, Carvin following along.

"Within luck, this night will end with them both just saying hi and bye and nothing else," Jack eased hoping, as he had his staff on his shoulders, resting on it.

"You wanna skate?" Marionette asked Carvin after some long silence.

"Eeeeexcept for that," Jack muttered losing his ease.

"Sure," Carvin accepted the idea.

They both went to get there skates at their homes and meet up back at the park, where Carvin swiped some snow off a bench to sit on so they can put on their skates. Marionette took off her boots where she saw her blisters were bleeding through her socks.

Jack saw and had a painful look on his face, "that looks pretty bad," he said looking closely at Marionette's feet.

"What happened to your feet?" Carvin asked.

"Oh nothing, it's just from walking too much I guess," Marionette lied as she tried to fight the pain on her feet, putting on her skate, but Carvin stopped her.

"It looks like blisters from not breaking in your ice skates. Are those new?" Carvin asked.

"They were given to me awhile back, but I haven't tried them since yesterday." Marionette confessed.

"Well, you should be more careful, and should have them bandaged and wear two socks over it if you want to skate to break them in," Carvin suggested.

"Well I figured I broke them in today," Marionette mentioned.

"That's not breaking them in, here, let me put band aids at least so they don't bleed through anymore," Carvin said taking out a first aid kit from his satchel.

"You always carry a first aid kit around?" Marionette asked.

"Yeah, I work at a part time home improvement store so whenever I get just abrasion on the saw or the electric saw, it burns really bad later and the cuts get bigger, so I bring one every day if I get clumsy," Carvin confessed.

He band aid her blisters that were bleeding, and then put healing cream on her cuts, and then he placed the sock back on her foot, and then helped put on her skates for her.

"Thank you," Marionette said relieved.

"We'll see how long you'll last, if it starts hurting again I'll take you home," Carvin promised.

"You do that, then I'll give you a little thank you gift for helping," Jack promised mischievously.

They skated on, and Marionette felt like she could fly again, but every time Carvin got closer to Marionette's side, Jack flew by and put his staff in front of Carvin's feet, so he tripped and fell down a lot. Jack even made the rink more icy and slippery, to the point Carvin's skates couldn't skate on it, because his skates skidded across the way. But Jack, when Marionette almost would fall or slip, cleared his slippery ice path so she can skate easier and feel more balanced. But the time Jack pulled onto Carvin's scarf, and made him fall on his back, Carvin called it a night, and ask to walk Marionette home.

"I thought you knew how to skate?" Marionette asked.

"I do, but this rink might be cursed," Carvin responded in a hurtful tone in his voice.

Jack could only laugh and cackle and Carvin's pain, so he followed them home, and laughed when Carvin walking, was in so much pain to not even make a move. Coming to Marionette's house, Marionette thanked Carvin for the evening out and bandaging her feet.

"I think you should lay down for a while," Marionette suggested this time for Carvin's injury.

Carvin softly laughed, "Yeah, go to the chiropractor tomorrow, see if I didn't break my tail bone."

"Or have a concussion?" Marionette added.

"Chiropractors don't check on concussions," Carvin corrected her.

"No, but you should go see if you have one, sometimes they come at odd times, just don't fall asleep or close your eyes, or else you'll never wake up," Marionette suggested.

Carvin nodded and smiled saying good night. They waved good bye at each other, and Jack waving good bye at Carvin, watching him leave. When Marionette went inside, Carvin was still walking and Jack was watching.

"Oh I almost forgot his thank you present," Jack remembered and he tapped twice on the floor with his staff and from a tree with piles of snow on top, Carvin just about to walk pass it was avalanched down with piles of snow from the tree, completely covered, Jack laughing at him struggling to get out and freezing his way, running to his house.

Jack then flew up to Marionette's window, seeing inside she was painting a portrait with blues and whites, and what he could see, a base of a tree and branches. He watched her for a while, waiting for her to go to sleep. For a while she didn't, but then she finally turned off her desk lamp and yawned her way, collapsing on her mattress.

In the morning Marionette woke up to a drawn picture of a snowflake and a rabbit on her window, on the outside of her window covered by frost from perhaps last night. She took a picture with her Polaroid camera before the image went away, and placed the image in her diary, writing down 'Jack Frost was here!"


	4. Chapter 3 Dying on Easter

Chapter 3 Dying on Easter

Weeks had finally passed since the two adventurous days went on in Marionette's life. At least so far, every day she seemed to have taken the time to ice skate by herself and Johnny and his friends. She would pick him and his sister up after school, waiting there with the other moms, and walking them home straight to babysit. It seems though that Marionette was already popular among Johnny's friends too, as they started to hang after school with her and Johnny until they had to go home. And while she continued to spend time with them, Jack Frost continued to spend time with Marionette and making it snow everyday so far since she came to Seattle. After school, she would have Johnny and his friends go sledding, ice skate, or even play ice hockey. And every day Jack enjoyed how Marionette got inspired by the snow. Every night she would stay up all night painting until she collapsed, and wake up early to cut down icicles and put them in a silicon base to keep them stay the way they are forever. She would cover them in blue glitter, and tie them up like dangling wind chimes, and put them up in Johnny's and Abby's room, so when a shine of light shines through them, they would get streaks of rainbows when they would wake up every morning. Sometimes she would try to preserve snowflakes but didn't have the kind of glue and glass frames she needed to preserve it, she would've given it to Carvin, Johnny and Abby as a present.

Time passed by and the fair Marionette signed up for got her a lot of attention. Night and day on her free time besides going out at night to ice skate and be in her own thoughts, she was painting beautiful canvases of snow, fable beings, everything she dreamt the night before, and even her new home. Her parents like that painting and even bought it from her. At the fair, she sold a lot of paintings that she sold for cheap. Each painting 25 dollars or ten for medium size portraits or two dollars for a colored cover she colored with markers. What made it her day though was when Carvin came along and saw her work, and even asked for a commission.

"Can you paint for me a picture of a house or cottage in the autumn, near a lake or the mountains, kind of New England like, that has a tall lamp post in front of it," He said to her feeling like he was escaping by just explaining it to her.

"Is this the kind of escape you want to imagine whenever you see it?" Marionette asked Carvin, who just smiled in return not wanting to say it.

In four days she finished the commission, and delivered it straight to him. Having the satisfaction of being paid twenty five dollars was nothing to the reaction Carvin made when he saw his commission. Marionette for once felt pleased with herself, for she always followed the belief that the worst critic to the Artist is the Artist his/herself.

Almost every day Johnny and his friends asked Marionette to tell stories about Jack Frost and even other fable myths, like the Sandman, the true tales of Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan, and plenty of adventures of Jack Frost making friends with other fable folk. Every night, Johnny would ask to be sung to, and even Abby so they could go to sleep with a feeling of being thought of in their dreams. They would each beg giving Marionette big shiny eyes, droopy puppy-like and smiling as if they were as innocent as their ages can personify.

"Oh how can I ever escape from those eyes?" Marionette dramatically would said jokingly and would sing them a different lullaby each night and the little siblings would instantly fall asleep.

And each time this happened, Jack would be there, listening to her sing, hearing her stories, and even following her to make sure she goes to bed sometime in the night while painting something that came to her the first thing in her mind. He found himself spending time with her, watching her, and making sure she was okay then causing fun and mischief. It was completely off character of him, but he couldn't help it. He would squeeze the locket in his palm every time he felt that she could see him. At this point, he wanted to hear and see him. Just this once, because if Marionette wasn't eighteen, she would see him as bright as day, the constant belief that she continued to support him, made him happy but now seeking for more. Being believed is one thing, but now he wants her to talk to him, to see him, and he continues to lose hope in this. While Carvin maybe the spitting image of him when he was once human, Jack constantly felt jealous of him, and pulling pranks on him was starting to lose the pleasure. For once he wanted to be him, to be seen, to be alive, to be able to live four houses down from her, and in much soon time, go to the same school and attend the same classes as her.

The time that Marionette finally started school, it was snowing and she was playing in the snow before she went to her first class of the week and that would be Children's Folklore and Literature. To everyone's surprise, she came into the class completely wet from down to up, because she was playing in the snow, it melted by the time she ran to class and came in, hair completely wet, soggy clothes, and just a smile on her face.

"Caught in the rain, or did you take a bath with just your clothes on?" Her professor said with a sarcastic monotone voice, but Marionette didn't seem to care, she would smile and say "Top of the morning to you too," and she would sit down in her seat which she didn't notice was next to where Carvin was sitting.

"What are you doing here?" She asked him.

"Normally I wouldn't be here, but I decided to give it a try," Carvin said almost as if he was waving a white flag of defeat in his voice and just came out saying without a breath and without thinking, "Guess you just inspire me."

Marionette felt surprised but as soon as the professor talked about the tales of Mother Goose, she fell into complete focus.

And as a few months passed by, Easter was soon coming. And Jack didn't stop the change in the weather.

In what felt like a few days past when Jack was just following Marionette to her home after a day of babysitting Johnny, the time she went inside, Jack could hear something come straight at him and so he dodged aiming his staff at whoever was there and saw a boomerang was caught in the shadows. Jack knew the figure of the shadow being disguised under a pine tree across the street on a neighbors front yard.

"Bunny," Jack said playfully, "It's been awhile once again."

"Don't talk to me like that, I thought we were straight after the whole Pitch incident," the six foot rabbit standing on just his two rabbit feet was not like a fluffy pink or chocolate Easter bunny you would imagine. This rabbit was a Pooka, a warrior like rabbit with warrior markings and bands on his arms, armed with Easter bomb eggs like pin bombs over his chest, and two strapped boomerangs on his back, when he spoke he has a thick Australian accent, that was probably the most unexpected part of what you wouldn't see after imagining what the actual Easter Bunny was like. After all, his coat was greyish blue, with bright green eyes, and warrior's face that made him intimidating but among children, perhaps like Peter Rabbits' mother, all wise and cautious and filled with love.

Jack's smirk turned to a scoff, his bluish green eyes could not hide he was caught, but at least this time he would give a better excuse.

"Listen Bunny, for once it's not you, I'll stop by Easter I promise," Jack tried to hurry this up almost. He knew full well Marionette was already painting by now.

"You've never stayed in one place so long for spreading this long of snow days," Bunny or his prefer name Bunnymund said suspiciously, "What's gotten into Ya?"

"nothing!" Jack said making this conversation end faster. "I just like Seattle now, needs more snow then rain."

"Uh-huh," Bunnymund muttered, "What's really been going on Jack?"

Jack tighten his staff, grabbing it in one hand, and then taking it by the other. "There's this girl, who knew about me way before I ever became a guardian," Jack explained confessing.

"Really? whose she?" Bunnymund asked.

"Her name is Marionette, she lives right here," Jack said pointing to her house.

Both Bunnymund and Jack jumped to her window to see Marionette painting another canvas. "That's not a kid," Bunnymund stated.

"I know that!" Jack said sliding down Marionette's roof on the ice with ease. "I'm just doing my job, being a guardian."

"We Guardians protect kids not adults, she's not a kid," Bunnymund corrected.

"She's 18!"-"Not a kid!" Bunnymund interrupted. Jack scowled at him.

"So what!" He started to say, "Shouldn't we protect those that aren't children either, especially if their adults that still believe in us?"

"And she still believes in us?" Bunnymund asked.

"Don't they all after they grow up?" Jack felt something went wrong with this conversation.

"Not all the time mate, they grow out of us and then there are new kids that take their place when they grow up," Bunnymund explained.

"You're kidding," Jack couldn't believe what an unfair sentence he was just hearing.

"No, that's the cycle," Bunnymund explained jumping down the house and scratching his hear with his big rabbit foot.

"So Jamie, and all his friends will grow out of us? But they saw all of us! How can they just grow up and forget us?" Jack questioned feeling almost like his role as a guardian so far felt worthless.

"Listen Jack, you never see an adult see us like children do. They grow out of us and so they move on, and their children are born so they believe in us, and this cycle goes on and on, for practically centuries." Bunnymund explained not trying to make it sound harsh anymore than what he's seeing in Jack's expression. Jack could only hold the face of betrayal after the man in the moon picked him to be a guardian.

"But she believes in us," Jack argued denying that Bunnymund has to be wrong in his view. "She still believes in us, and before I was ever a Guardian, I know she saw me," Jack said practically sounding like he has to be believed in what he's saying. "She saw me a long time ago, and she grew up still believing in me and my existence, she's not like every other kid that grows up like you said!" He took out the golden locket opening it to look at her picture as a little girl.

"There's something more than just what you say," Bunnymund said suspiciously looking at the locket Jack was looking at. "What is that?" He asked him.

"Marionette left this for me as a thank you gift, after I gave her very first snow day," Jack explained. "I've had it ever since, I almost forgot about it, until I just saw her here."

"You think it's more than just that?" Bunnymund asked coming closer to Jack, looking down at him, his face made Jack uncomfortable as he smiled crookedly. The warrior Pooka was giving a smile that Jack knew what it meant.

"It's not what you think," Jack said to him.

"I won't lie, she's a pretty girl," Bunnymund mentioned teasing.

"How is it you can see human girls attractive?" Jack asked uncertain if he really wanted to know what he just asked.

"I don't, I'm just saying, she is pretty, and you do seem well attach to her more then what your givin' me," Bunnymund teased smiling.

"What I'm giving you is the solid truth, and that is I'm just being a Guardian, protecting her and watching like all the other kids, and if she still believes in us like all the other children in the world, she deserves to be guarded just like the rest of them," Jack explained hiding everything behind a frown that he himself kept holding but wasn't sure if he could take it anymore.

"Just wrap up the snow days once Easter comes, I don't want you covering up my eggs!" Bunnymund claimed as he tap the floor with his foot twice and a rabbit hole appeared.

"Hey I promise, I'll just freeze a lake," Jack promised.

Bunnymund stared at him, "It's just a lake!" Jack claimed. Bunnymund rolled his eyes and jumped right into his rabbit hole as it disappeared and left a patch of spring flowers in its place.

Once he was gone, Jack sighed relieved. And he took another look at the locket and closed it, putting it back in his blue sweatshirt, as he jumped back up to watch Marionette painting. For another hour she stopped painting and plopped back on her mattress exhausted.

The next day Marionette came down stairs of her home to announce to her parents at breakfast she was finally finished.

"Finished with what?" Her mother asked.

"With the one painting I've been working on, I finally got it perfect just like I remembered it!" Marionette said excitingly and relieved with all the hard work she has done.

"And what painting would that be?" Her father asked.

"The perfect one I've been working on forever," she said sitting down and stealing a toast from the center of the table.

"Oh so it's that Jack Frost painting?" her father asked as he folded his newspaper to the next page.

"Sweetie what are you doing on Easter?" her mother asked.

"Oh, I was gonna go with Johnny and his friends and his mom to go Easter egg hunting." Marionette said.

"Your not going to church with us?" her father asked seeming to not mind but wanted to know her plans.

The thought of waking up early was terrible to Marionette, especially since she's a college student, who grasps sleep whenever she can at any part of the day.

"No, I don't want to wake up, I can say sorry to Jesus the day after," Marionette said as she engulfed a cup of hot chocolate.

"Honey you should come to Easter Sunday church, I know we don't go to church as often as most Catholics should, but we should go to Sunday church," her mother explained. "Besides I got you a dress that you might like to wear, you could wear it at the Easter hunt with your friends."

The thought of wearing some spring flowery dress didn't sit well with Marionette unless she picked it out herself.

"Aren't you a little old to go Easter egg hunting anyways?" her father asked.

"Carvin is going to join us, so no." Marionette ended his argument.

"Aren't you two a little old going Egg hunting?" her dad asked again correcting himself.

"In your world," Marionette snapped back at her father.

"Come on you two," Her mother said trying to stop them before they started a juvenile argument like they've done throughout most of Marionette's life. Marionette's mother had to be the mother and her own daughter and husband had to be like children in front of her.

That day Marionette went around looking for places to rent for a gallery, or even heading to small galleries downtown to donate her work to be shown, but she couldn't find any that would accept or she would have enough to pay.

Then she saw Carvin outside loading long boarded shelves into the back of his truck. They both said hello.

"You working?" Marionette asked.

"As you can see," Carvin answered, "I was able to get a night shift so on Easter I can join you guys to help with the egg hunting, I'm also gonna go around hiding some eggs too if you want to help early in the morning."

"If it means I will wake up early to do something fun related and doesn't have to do with going to church then yes," Marionette agreed.

Carvin laughed at Marionette's excuse. He agreed he didn't mind church, but he didn't like waking up early to go to it when he could sleep in.

"I'm trying to find a gallery to rent so I can show my artwork," Marionette explained as to why she was outside. She did after all held a notepad with a pen and crossing out names of buildings.

"Well if you're going to ask around here, you're gonna obviously be rejected or be asked to pay alot of money in down town," Carvin explained.

"You could always use an abandoned building or farm, I mean I know where there's one that I could clean up for you if you wanna use it?" Carvin suggested taking off his working gloves to check off a list of furniture parts.

"How much can I pay you if you're willing to do that?" Marionette asked happily.

"Free of charge," Carvin said smiling. "No one uses the place, and I always wanted to clean it up so it can be used for something. Why not your dream gallery?" he asked.

Marionette couldn't contain the happiness she had in her when she hugged him.

"I'll show you after the big hunt, I gotta do deliveries and repairs all day today," Carvin explained, putting back his gloves on and getting into his truck.

"Thank you so much!" she said gleefully as Carvin waved good-bye driving off. She crossed off all the names on her notepad and went off walking happily. She had her ice skates with her and invited Johnny and Abby to go ice skating before it all goes away. She had a feeling the snow would all go away and melt by tomorrow when Easter comes. Jack Frost can't make mischief with snow around on Easter, or the Easter Bunny will get seriously mad at him and make him eternal enemies with Jack.

They skated and helped decorate and paint Easter eggs, which Marionette had fun helping, she helped them create new designs, and even made funny faces on them like Jack O' Lanterns, and even cut out paper sticker designs to make pretty patterns come out on the egg.

When the day passed, Marionette found a pink and purple dress on her bed laid out from her mother. Marionette couldn't believe it, but her mother did well. The dress was pale pink and purple, the collar was shaped of a flat V that wrapped the top of her breasts to the bottom of her shoulders, a pedal like ruffle on her waist, and curtain like end of the dress, she could wear this with her brown boots, which she always liked wearing dresses with boots.

Later she tried on her dress and took pictures of herself with her Polaroid camera and posted them on her wall for fun. Then she decided to refill her camera for tomorrow and boiled some eggs to make for herself to decorate and paint for fun. Until the time came dark, she went around the neighborhood to the Sunday Easter egg hunting event in the park, and hid her decorative eggs that she just finished in the most creative places she could think of. Jack watched her as Marionette climbed a tree to put a pink and orange egg she painted into a tree branch, viewable for anyone to see, but those that want it will have to climb to get it.

"You know, Bunny might have a good respect for what you do," Jack mentioned to Marionette who of course she didn't hear. She looked around bushes and parts of grass or even the jungle gym to place her eggs in fun places for kids to find. Once she was done, she felt satisfied. But she looked sad picking up what she could have left over snow. Even if it's Easter and Easter is the holiday of spring which is new life and beginnings, she felt that she couldn't leave the snow behind. The thought of ice skating one last time was all she probably preferred.

Jack could read her sad expression as the snow melted and fell apart quickly in Marionette's hands, turning to water which leaked through her fingertips. "Don't worry," Jack said, "You can ice skate tomorrow. I'll leave one lake frozen just for you." Jack promised smiling as Marionette wiped her hands from the icy water and went back home.

The next day, was early when Marionette got up, and she saw on her window was a picture drawn from outside a picture of ice skates, left by who else could she ever think of, but Jack Frost. She leaped out of bed excited and put on her dress her mother bought her, and put on her brown cacky boots and looked outside to see if it was still cold and snowy outside, but saw as the sun broke through the sky far away from underneath the clouds, the trees were full of green, flowers started to blossom waking up, and the smell of fresh grass after the sprinklers went off was clear. She could feel the warmth of the sun as it slowly risen up to the sky. Marionette just took her skates with a satchel with her camera, quickly took a picture of her window and place the photo in her album, deciding to place and label it later, she went down stairs and took off running through the empty streets and on the empty sidewalk to look around the lakes or the rinks.

Marionette had a few hours before she could meet Carvin to help out the egg hunt, so she had to find a lake still frozen, frozen and stable enough to skate on. That picture on her window wasn't from some prankster, how could they climb up to the second floor where there was no lodge or balcony wide enough to climb up on? Especially when there was no roof under her window, just the front door and garage, it had to be Jack Frost giving her a sign that there's a place left for her to skate on.

Outside it was warm, and Marionette was worried about sweating in her new dress since it was new and her mother just bought it. She hadn't notice that running around there were early risers of families getting into cars, walking straight to their neighborly church. She saw that there were people and families already getting up to go Easter egg hunting for the kids and deciding to go to Easter Sunday church at night. Marionette avoided them and searched countlessly for the next lake. Only to realize there was a place that Jack Frost first came to her when she first ice skated.

How stupid could she be? Of course it was that small lake in the woods near Johnny's house, she was running for nothing! She walked back to go over and take a shortcut to the pond, finding that kids were already out with baskets looking for eggs and having breakfast outside and barbequing.

Jack found Marionette searching for the lake where they first met, and he quickly followed behind her making sure that she was going the right way. The park next to the woods and nearby Johnny's home had a small forest that divided a cliff where the lake was below. Marionette was going the right direction, she could feel it.

Just when she got closer, she saw a huddle of older boys, probably high school, talking or what it really look like hovering over a little girl holding an Easter Basket.

Both Marionette and Jack felt there was something wrong with this picture. When they both got closer, they saw the boys were pushing the little girl and calling her names and asking her to give them her chocolate Easter eggs.

"Where's Bunny when you need him?" Jack mumbled to himself.

Marionette ran over toward them, yelling "Hey!" to get their attention.

There were four boys that shot up standing straight now that Marionette could see they weren't bending down or lifting their heads up since they were busy looking down at the little girl.

"What do you think you're doing?" Marionette asked them.

"Nothing!" one of them said, grinning. A few them looked at each other holding their expressions, looking poker face so it would seem they weren't meaning to do anything at all.

The little girl looked at Marionette a little nervous, but looked back at the boys, and then back at her, her eyes asking for Marionette come and take her away from these bigger boys.

"Sweetie are you okay?" Marionette asked the little girl.

"This is my little sister, I'm taking her out egg hunting, you have no business talking to her," one of the boys came over touched the little girl's shoulder, to keep her closer to him and away from Marionette.

"Then why is she so afraid of you?" Marionette asked.

"She's not afraid!" the boy retorted with almost spitting, "She's my little sister."

The girl could only look back at Marionette with fear and nervousness in her eyes, she wouldn't speak even though she mumbled trying, and Marionette could see her eyes becoming watery for tears to fall down her cheeks.

"I think saw your mom nearby," Marionette said walking closer slowly to the girl. "I'll take you to her, I'll call for her, so you won't have to be here anymore..." Marionette said to the little girl, trying to get her to walk towards her. If she spoke enough words strong enough to get the little girl to want to run, she can get her running straight down to the families through the forest and to the park, and get people's attention.

"You know, I saw some pretty eggs nearby where the jungle gym was, underneath the sandbox, you could find some hidden eggs in the sandbox, I'm sure the Easter Bunny hid them well enough for you to find," Marionette felt like mentioning this, as she felt the little girl was slowly walking towards her, and she was.

She walked fast enough to Marionette's side that Marionette put her hand on her shoulder just to comfort her to keep walking faster.

And when it felt like she was walking faster than Marionette, Marionette made sure she was getting through the small forest to the park where she could hear kids laughing, see the view of the blue and yellow jungle gym through the spaces of the leaves and branches and twigs, and see the smoke and smell the bar-b-que burns and ash. Marionette could finally see the little girl get through the forest quickly, that she followed quickly after her, only to find it wasn't enough.

Marionette felt her arm and shoulders be grabbed from the back and arms of the boys tangled around her, them pulling and squeezing on their grip. Marionette tried to fight back, and Jack took his staff and whipped in the air for a frozen plunder to come at the faces of the boys, but nothing happened.

It couldn't be true. He tried to grab the boys that was holding Marionette down, as she was fighting back, kicking, throwing punches, it wasn't a fair fight; Four boys against one girl. Jack couldn't swing punches or make snow or ice come from his staff, or the snow fall or hail be made, he was...powerless.

They just faded right through him like air, not knowing the belief in him; he was unable to even touch Marionette. To grab her and fly her up and away in the air, but he couldn't do anything. He swung his staff at them, but he had no powers. Nothing left in him. And it all ended too fast, because Marionette was running from them, and ran to stop them from pulling and grabbing on her. She was only eighteen, but she wasn't tall, she was averaged height and probably weighed around 150 pounds, the healthy kind of weight, so she wasn't strong or heavy, but she sure didn't know how to beat their bran power. And then one of them pushed her, not realizing he pushed her over the cliff, and she fell. Not in the few seconds of that silence was Jack's scream not heard to them, but a loud crash and bam was echoed in the silence. The boys looked over to find Marionette had fallen straight onto the icy lake, flat, lifeless, and unresponsive.

The boy's scared reactions and fear of what they had done, caused them to run away. And Jack Frost looked over to see Marionette. She fell right onto the icy lake that he kept frozen for her to skate on. Her body was flat on the ground, her face to the ice floor, her dress's ruffles scattered around her legs like pedals, and her face to the side on the floor, with her hands and arms spread out from her body, one hand was wide open touching flat on the ice, the other was curled up in with her fingers slightly open but wrapped into her palm, as if she was holding something weakly. Her legs were not so spread apart from each other, but she lost her boot that fell off from her foot during the fell, and near her was her bag, her Polaroid camera fell out and was shattered, and her ice skates, was broken. One blade on one skate split into two, falling off and shattering the ice.

The moment was too long to know what to do next. When someone would be shot, you covered the wound by making the blood come out. When someone was cut, you makes sure you have some way of washing the cut, but keeping the blood from flowing out so it won't get infected. This...this was...something fast and painful.

When Jack could feel something strange come upon him, he saw that his staff, once powerless a few minutes ago, was working suddenly, as Jack's florental ice lyrically spread on the staff, his powers now coming back to him. He went down from the wind gliding him down to the icy floor, slowly walking toward of what might be a corpse. When he got close, he kneeled down to her, and suddenly tears over took him instantly. Because her eyes were closed, her head looked displaced from her neck, and blood was leaking from the side of her head. He tried to stop it, by lifting her head and putting his hand over it, to freeze from bleeding too much out, but there was no point.

The moon, the white, shiny and pure circled moon shined down on Marionette and Jack. No one could hear it, but Jack. "Why did you do this?" he begged asking for an answer.

The moon answered to him like it felt he was only speaking through Jack's mind. "But why? Why did you stop me? I could've of saved her!" Jack yelled at to the moon.

But Jack jerked his head away as if the Moon was yelling at him, "This isn't destiny!" Jack yelled back, "You let her die and didn't let me save her! She was the one who could have changed everything for me..."

Jack couldn't help but try to hold her, to hug her, but the Man in the Moon did not let that last long. Suddenly the ice under them shattered instantly breaking apart, and Jack couldn't put it back together. Marionette sunk right through Jack's arms and into the cold water, sinking straight down to the bottom.

"No!" Jack shouted, and he tried to reach in and to grab her, but the shattered ice suddenly iced itself back together when his fingertips touched the surface of the water.

"Why!?" Jack shouted at the Moon. "Please! You can't let her die!"

He stood there, begging for the Moon to do something, but the shine of its existence disappeared, and it just became a lifeless planet, not saying another word to Jack. But jack stood there waiting, and when a few minutes passed by, he took his staff and decided to build something out of ice. Under the cliff, just where Marionette fell, Jack sculpted out of ice with his staff a tall grave stone, a pillar with a snow flake on it. It was tall and decadent, but perfect because on top of the pillar he crafted from just with a snow man that he got from suddenly making it snow, and turned the snow man into an ice angel, and laid it on top of the pillar. The angel had her hounds crossed and her face lifted up as if singing out to the sky, and in her arms crossed, Jack made a small ice sculpted lamb for the angle to hold. There he felt the angel was holding a child, like what Marionette does when she sings Johnny and Abby to sleep.

He then sculpted ice roses to lie in front of the grave. He made at least a dozen of these when he heard a familiar and angry voice call out his name. He knew it was Bunnymund, you can't forget a voice or accent like that, but he completely knew he broke the promise.

"What is wrong with you!? We had a deal! No snow on Easter Sunday! I thought you said you only going to freeze a lake!?" Bunnymund shouted, but Jack didn't respond. Still sculpting ice roses with his hands, gently to make the detail exactly like a real rose.

"He took her away," Jack said finally, when Bunnymund came over to the ice lake to get closer to Jack. Jack completely forgot that his emotions even tie down to his powers, the falling snow wasn't happy snow, it was just tragic.

"Who took her away?" Bunny asked.

"Marionette," Jack answered weakly, sounding as if he was fighting his tears, "She fell down, and the Moon didn't let me save her, he took away my powers...for just a few seconds...and I could've saved her...If I haven't frozen the lake." Jack could only talk in opened space sentences, the image of Marionette being pushed over the cliff kept replaying in his head, and he couldn't think of anything else.

It didn't take long for Bunnymund to notice the roses, the grave, the angel, and Jack sitting there, making ice roses, lost and completely unaware of his surroundings. He figured it out quickly, and all he could do was sit next to Jack, and put his paw on Jack's shoulder, which made him stop sculpting. "It's my entire fault..." Jack said. He had his hood up, but Bunnymund could see his watery eyes, his betrayed expression, his completely disheveled and broken heart.

"He said it was destiny?" Jack said thinking out loud, "What would he want with her?"

"I'm sorry what happened mate, I'm sorry it had to happen today, now Easter will never be the same to you," Bunnymund said looking at Jack feeling guilty. "You can let it snow if you want, I'll uh..." Bunnymund had a hard time with this conversation, "I'll just leave you two alone." And the sadden warrior Pooka walked away, not knowing what to do for Jack, his mischievous ally, who was now broken from seeing death, was sitting on the icy floor in front of the tall grave, making ice roses from the ice cold air, starting with just the palm of his hand, Jack stopped making roses after seeing he made so many surrounding the grave.

It took him a few weeks to actually leave the grave site, but every day he came by and placed an ice rose on the grave, and he would sit there, as if waiting to see if the Moon would do something to end his grieving. He did this for the next twelve years. And when 12 years passed to summer in August, Jack wouldn't believe what the Moon would do next.


	5. Chapter 4 Awakening in Summer

Chapter 4 Awakening in Summer

What went wrong? Was the question Jack Frost asked over in his head? There were so many things that could of worked but nothing did. He was powerless, and it all had to do with the Man in the Moon. He took away his powers for only brief seconds to find it came back to him twice, but only when the most important person he could've come back to meet was dead, and that's because the Man in the Moon let it happen.

They say Destiny has its own mind. It has what it's chosen to happen will happen because it gives you a meaning of what life, the universe, even perhaps spirit chosen for you to become. The Man in the Moon had Jack's destiny to die, only to bring him back to life as a sprite called Jack Frost. And that's because the Man in the Moon chose him for saving his sister's life. And for 300 years, Jack never knew this. He had no memory of his past life, which he meant something to people, that he didn't just come from air. It was something more. And when Jack was chosen to be Guardian to stop Pitch Black from covering darkness over the world and taking the beliefs away from children, Jack was able to retrieve his memories from his tooth box, a small little golden and colorful trinquet box that had his memories stored into them. The Tooth Fairy was the Guardian of Memories, and she had his memories from the teeth Jack had lost in his past life. But somehow all the Guardians had memories of their past lives, except for Jack. Retrieving them gave him the power to fight back Pitch Black, when there were no other children believing in the world, there was one more, and his name was Jamie. Jack and the Guardians protected Jamie, and soon his other friends only to find Jamie and his friends protected the Guardians in the battle against Pitch Black. Defeating him, Jack was able to be believed in, and able to find his identity.

But now he's questioning Destiny. And the past lives of the Guardians. When they sacrifice their lives for the happiness of the children, were their deaths brutal like what he witnessed of for fun. But Marionette's death hurt him the most, feeling the utmost helpless in his life. He didn't dare go back to see Johnny or Abby, or see how Carvin was doing, or even her parents. He was just too afraid. No, he visited her grave site that he made for her every day for the past twelve more years, to leave an ice rose for her, and to stand or sit there remembering everything the life Marionette could of had if she lived.

He started to wonder when the Moon will wake her up; after all, that's why she died. Isn't it? Jack wondered that if the Moon took away his powers for brief seconds, and letting Marionette fall to her death, that he had plans for her in her new life. Isn't that true?

Jack made his way again to the ice lake, to visit Marionette, holding another ice rose in his hand, he visited her in the day of summer. Where the lake was cold and the air was hot, but her iced grave was still there, standing there like an iceberg in the middle of the lake, standing in water. His ice grave and roses he made which covered most around the tomb stone had stacks of roses that looked like bushes surrounding hit. It had gotten bigger and higher since twelve years ago he first made it. But he couldn't think of what else t do for her, he wondered if all the snow and ice he gave her, really made her happy, made her feel that there was a chance in life she had never seen before. After all, she never finished school, make her gallery, or even went ice skating for the last time on Easter. Easter, the day that she promised to help Carvin his Easter eggs, and joins Johnny and Abby to go egg hunting. She had so much potential for this world, why would the Man in the Moon just suddenly take that away from her?

Jack placed an ice rose this time on the lamb that was held by the ice angel on top of the tomb stone. And he sat there, sitting on top of the water, making an ice mat for him to sit on the cold summer water. He tried to control his feelings, making it only snow in this small area of the lake and forest of her grave site. Nothing else touched here, so the lake would be frozen completely, the trees would be covered in snow or leafless from the warm green summer leaves, the rocks and cliff hedges would have icicles pondering down, and snowflakes would be falling down to make imprints on the angel. The sky would be blue but the wind would blow cold breezes and the air would smell like pine cones and pine green trees.

For just a moment, Jack sighed breathing in the art that he made for her, all for her to see one day.

The moon appeared in the daylight of the sky, and shined down upon the ice angel, making it shine rays all around it and on the ice floor and at Jack. He looked up to see only to be blinded so he covered his eyes. He jumped back a few feet, only to hear cracks of ice suddenly dispersing. The angel shattered and millions of small sharded pieces of ice, with the ice roses shattered, flying out like arrows. Jack covered his eyes and face, the ice shards couldn't hurt him, but he didn't want them poking in his eyes. And then when he felt the ice flying stopped, a geyser shot out from the ice, leaping up high into the bright blue summer sky, and rained its cold water down on Jack and all around him. When the geyser slowly lowered itself down, overflowing the shattered cracks of the ice coming out of the surface, there in the place of the ice tombstone angel was a hole from the geyser, and from the hole, water came overflowing out of the ice, and suddenly transformed into a patch of green grass and an island form, where flowers spurted out and the iced lake melted away into warm and clear water. Out from the patch of flowers was a tiny bubble, it grew enormously and then turned into a bright lighted sphere, somehow almost looking like a miniature version of the sun, because it was so bright and warm, Jack had to cover his eyes again from the brightness, almost hurting his eyes. And then he peeked under his arm to see the sphere formed into a figure, and it rose up as if it was bouncing up higher and higher and the figure was the shape of a woman, who slowly floated down and landing softly on her legs and had the rest of her body limp down to the ground, laying in the soft patch of grass. Wings, bright and colorful like stain glass, fluttered out of her back, softly expanding like a baby bird about to take its first flight, spreading his wings out. There the wings were butterfly like, bright and colorful, stained glass with different colors. There was gold in between the spaces for the stain glass colors, and there lyrical curls of shimmering gold curled on the wings, like it was painted over the stain glass itself. Those wings, slowly folded down, resting on the back of the female figure.

Jack didn't know what to do. And then he thought that Marionette was revived, like him. He leaped over to see her face, and he saw blonde pale curls cover her face, yet she was wearing the same Easter dress Marionette was wearing, except it was torn up, and she was barefooted. Her long curly and wavy hair lay out around her head like a spiral. There Jack slowly moved a curl from her face, and she flinched, which made him leap back all the way hiding high up in a tree.

There he watched her from afar, seeing the back of her sit up and looking around, and she looked so confused like Jack did the first time he woke up. The first thing after looking around, she looked up into the sky and saw the moon, clear and bright, peeking out from the blue sky, he spoke to her and she listened, but no one could hear his voice except her. Like there was having a psychic conversation through silent words. Jack knew the moon stopped talking to her, because she stood p on her legs and looked around, where she turned to his view and see it was Marionette. Her face was the same, but her eyes were from blue green to pale pink, her lips were red and her hair was long, curly and wavy and creamy yellow. Her dress had rips and tears all around and she was barefooted. Every time she took a step, she realized she made a new patch of grass on the lake, with a new flower bed. She touched the grass she somehow made unknowingly, feeling its texture.

Then she dipped her hands into the water, cupping her hands she threw the water up in the air, expecting of rain but the water droplets formed into water butterflies then from the shine of the sun turned into real monarch butterflies, fluttering away through the trees of the forest. She laughed and didn't realize until she tried to take another step, that she was floating a few feet off the ground, and when she looked down noticing the defying of gravity, she squeaked and fell straight down, upon getting up she heard a fluttering noise, which Jack could see are her colorful glassy wings, and looked as much as she can on her back, to only turn around in a circle and she floated straight up again, only this time her wings started fluttering so fast that she sped up into the sky, only falling down straight into a tree, where Jack came out of his hiding spot and checked to find that she was holding dear life on the tree trunk, only to see herself laughing, giggling girlishly on what just happened.

Then she started to walk over on a stable branch where kept her balance as much as she can on her feet, that at the end she leapt right off the branch to try and get her wings to flutter, and by the point he was close enough to the shallow part of the lake, her wings fluttered fastly and she flew over the water, only a few inches away from, putting her hands into the water, and making into tiny waves, splashing and suddenly through the air turned into cherry blossom pedals. She spun into the air, and then spun downwards straight into a water like a torpedo, and she came straight out, bringing out a tree which grew up higher and higher spreading branches and leaves of all kinds, where she somehow sprung out blossoms raining down. The tree was so tall, it made its own shade, where the little fairy fluttered down and went back onto her little green patch of an island, flying down she noticed something shiny a picked up a spared of one of Jack's ice roses, where she looked at it so fascinated and starry eyed.

She didn't notice Jack was just a few feet away from her, starring at her amazed at what she had done. He didn't notice he was walking closer and she noticed Jack's shadow. She jumped and yeeped at his existence, didn't even noticed he was there when she looked up and she dropped the rose and it shattered into half little ice pieces.

"Oh no..." she said, she looked heartbroken at the flower that she like so much, only the rose flower bud itself remained the same. She picked it up trying to figure if she can fix it or actually try. "I broke it," she said disappointed and sad.

"It's okay," Jack said leaning down next to her. "I can make you another one."

She looked at him puzzled, but kept staring at him as he took the rose and was about to to make the stem when he instead put it in her hair, there he held it there and her head at the same time, concentrating as the little fairy felt something was going through her hair, cold and spiral like as it curled and spun around in her hair. It held her hair up into a little half bun, ice lyrical branches circled around her head into curls, holding half her long hair up, and rose in her hair like a bow, held it all, almost practically stuck to her head.

Jack let go, and said, "There, so it doesn't fall out of your hands. You'll have it all the time instead."

She felt her hair and the rose and smiled, patting it feeling it sturdy and making sure it doesn't fall out. Then they both stood up, staring at each other, both not sure what to say. She still looked at him puzzled, as if trying to remember his face from somewhere. And then slowly, she put her hand on his cheek, which jack flinched because her hand was so warm. He never felt this warm before, because he was so icy cold, he never got warm before. But this kind of warm felt nice, like sitting in front of a fireplace or actually feeling the comfort of the sun. It felt so strange because he didn't even notice that his face went back to his old normal pigment color before he was ever Jack Frost. Half of his hair went brown, his eyes almost went back to brown too and there was even a little pink left in his skin from the reaction of the warmth. They both though flinched away, she moved her hand away and Jack moved his head away from her hand, not sure what just happened.

"J-Jack Frost," she whispered.

Jack looked at her amazed and surprised. It wasn't because she was the first one who said his name like Jamie did, it was because for once in her life, she recognized him, she recognized him just like when she was so little, he could finally see her know his face.

He nodded slowly, smiling. "Yeah," he said, "It's me!"

Suddenly without Jack ever expecting, she took his arms and spun around in the air, so happy saying "It' you, you're really here! I can't believe it! I always knew you were real, but now I can see you!" she said so happy and practically squealing because she was just so excited. She spun high up in the air with glee, her stain glass wings sparkled a bright lens flare into Jack's eyes. She swoon straight at him with speed and stopped smiling like a fan girl meeting her most favorite rock star at the show.

But then she stopped immediately, wanting to ask him something.

"Jack Frost? when I was little," she asked which she didn't notice she was really close up to him, their faces were inches away from touching each other, but Jack didn't seem to mind, in fact it was him that was getting closer.

"When I was little, I saw you up in the tree, back in California, do you remember?" she asked.

Jack nodded with a Hmhmm.

"Well," she was playing with her fingers close to her chest, circling the question she wanted to ask, bending over her head and back trying to ask bravely.

"Well, Well I saw you, and I remember it snowed only once in my life, and when I heard that it was you who made it snow, and it was the most beautiful experience I've ever had in my life, and I've dreamt of it all the time afterwards, because when I was little, I...I left you something, a thank you present." she said.

"And it was a locket with a butterfly imprint on it and with my picture in it, and I was wondering if you..."

But she saw Jack take out a golden heart locket that she was explaining herself and saw it sparkled into her eyes, remembering the little necklace that reflected a memory in the reflection of her eyes.

"You did take it?" she saw it as he held it between his thumb and index finger.

"You did see me," she realized when she said it in a whisper only Jack could here.

"I held it on for a while, I almost forgot about it until I saw you in Seattle. And well...if you want it back," Jack said about to take off the necklace.

"No!" she stopped him, "It was a present for you, for you to keep," she placed her hand on his to stop him from unhooking the necklace to together.

"Thanks," he said smiling at her, relieved and almost amazed, because they both stared at each other for a awhile until she had to break the moment, for a thought just came to her head.

"Can I ask you something?" she asked.

"Uh sure?" Jack said feeling over thrown by her breaking the stare off. He could tell she was so excited to see him that she was trying to contain her voice and smile from squealing or getting any louder.

"You wanna go sledding?" she asked.

Jack could only look at her bewildered for a second, but then smiled, "I know the perfect place."

She smiled so happily. But then realized something, she shot out her hand to Jack, "My name is Anye!" she said.

"W-what?" Jack couldn't quite catch that seeing she spoke too fast.

"My name is Anye," Anye said slowly calming her voice down.

"Anye...?" Jack repeated confused. "Not Marionette?" he then asked.

Anye looked at him smiling confused, "No, the moon told me my name is Anye," she then further explained it.

Jack's eyes widen but to only ask her a question that he felt he needed to know, "Did the moon say anything else to you?"

"No..." Anye answered thinking, she turned to look up and see the Moon, once up close was farther way, still viewable, but because the moon and sun were matched on a sphere, it wasn't high up like it was supposed to; instead it was further down in the sky while the sun was high up, signaling the middle of the day.

She turned to straight back at Jack, shrugging her shoulders. "Was he supposed to say anything else?" she asked Jack.

"I thought he was, but I guess not." Jack said thinking out loud.

"Oh my gosh! Johnny and Abby! You should meet them, I've told so many stories about you to them, Come! Let's go see them at their house!" Anye gestured for Jack to come with her, but Jack nervously tried to stop her.

"No!" he said loudly in an impulsive action, he didn't mean to yell, "Um, I mean, I know exactly where to take you to go sledding!" Jack said changing his tone of voice.

"Oh really?" Anye asked curiously, as she fell distracted with Jack bringing up such an opportunity.

"Yeah," he said as the wind blew and he took hold of Anye's hand and they both flew up into the sky and far off from the ground that Anye has ever been.

She didn't notice she was flying herself as her wings were fluttering dashingly as she held on tight to Jack's hand where the wind was carrying him. She couldn't help but be amazed at the soft yet transparent feeling of the clouds, the wind in her face and hair, and the view from below. At first thought, she was scared, but then she could see the ocean, the green patches of land and countries and barrier continents. And she couldn't help but be mystified at how fast the journey was. Jack had taken her someplace she wouldn't have ever been too. They landed steadily at nightfall at the edge of a tall and almost steeply hill. It was snowing, and the area was covered in snow. From afar, she could see in what appeared to be city lights, was the Eiffel Tower, glowing and blinking of red and white lights. Faraway the moon was their source of light, and to her realization, Anye was so warm, the touch of snow on her bare feet didn't chill her, she felt like inside and out she was summer, and the cold winter snow felt like a cool summer breeze to her skin, it felt so nice, she couldn't had feel to need an open fire or jacket because of how hot she felt.

"Is this..Are we..?" Anye couldn't find the words because she was so speechless, looking beyond the Eiffel tower, she couldn't have ever believe her eyes for a second.

"Were in Paris!" she then squealed, fluttering up in the air of her reaction. "I've never been here before!" she turned straight to tell Jack.

"Really? I've been here dozens of times," Jack said casually.

"You have?" Anye asked curiously.

"Of course, I've been to Paris, London, Moscow, Beijing, Dublin, Spain, You name it! I've been all over the world." Jack answered Anye sounding casually and honest at the same time.

"Just by the wind taking you?" Anye thought out loud.

"Actually I control the wind, I call to it, and tell it where to take me and such," Jack corrected her.

"Just like in the stories! Of course!" Anye realized, "Wow! Jack you are so lucky!"

Jack turned to her smiling mischievously and proud, "Yeah I guess, but now you get to try it out," he pointed with his staff the hill top they were on.

"Well we gotta get a sled first," Anye said looking around to see if there was a renting sled or snow mobile place.

"We don't need one," Jack said, and he gathered a lot of snow and somehow formed it into and ice sled, big enough for two, thin and nice enough for speed and stopping.

"Oh my gosh!" was all the words to come out of Anye's mouth. She didn't know what else to say other then to look closely at the sled, it almost looked like it was handmade and everything which would have taken months or so, but this just took seconds for Jack to make.

"This is an amazing art," Anye said.

"Thanks but I rather use for fun," Jack said and motioned Anye to get in the sled.

She got in all excited and giddy, tucked in her dress and folded down her wings, wiggling her way in to show she was comfortable.

"Not too cold?" Jack asked her, because even the seat was ice.

"No, it's very refreshing to me!" She answered honestly.

"Cool," Jack said and he pushed the sled and jumped right in.

What felt like to Anye on this steep icy hill was like falling, and then flying. Butterflies in her stomach fluttered high up to her heart as the sled fell straight down on the soft but slippery snow. Jack used his staff to steer the sled, but really made the snow extra slippery and made it a way to travel faster as Anye could feel her fingertips lose hold on the sled, but once the steepness was passed, now it felt like riding down in a fast paced roller cart on a roller coaster with no seat belts. With Jack making the slipper road, they twirled, they spiraled, and they passed and circled around trees, and somehow made their way into the city where they dashed after cars at first, then raced them, buses, taxis, and even police cars on the run.

Anye was so surprised that no one could see them, but by how fast they were going, they couldn't have possibly see them. Down the streets and through some parks and even under the Eiffel tower, they sled down over icy pathway Jack was making and straight on to the east lake of the Eiffel tower, they flew on the water in the night, where Anye could feel like she was flying above it. She placed her hand into the water making a spraying splash at Jack's face accidently, which took the sled off the balance, they flew straight off the lake onto the field, about to crash into a police officer on his horse, but Anye without knowing it, created a bushy hedge that made the sled fly over the officer's head, just high enough that only his had flew off and the sled landed and slid on the grass where it finally stopped moving by falling straight on its side, both Jack and Anye were stuck under it.

They crawled their way out of the sled, and when they saw each other to get a breath of air, they started laughing. They laughed and told each other 'That was amazing!' 'I know!' "Did you see all how we flew!' and 'Oh my gosh we gotta do that again!'

"Wait," Anye stopped celebrating for a moment, "Did I make that hedge appear?" she asked.

"Yeah!" Jack said breathlessly from laughing from so much excitement.

"I didn't know I could do that," Anye said surprised.

"I think you'll find there are alot of things you can do," Jack said smiling.

Again there was a stare at each other until Anye saw something in the sky.

"Aurora Borealis!" she pointed out.

Jack turned around to see what she was looking at and saw the colorful lights of the Aurora Borealis in the sky like clear as day.

"I never knew it can be seen in France," Anye was as surprised as Jack was, but not for the same reason.

"Oh no," Jack muttered.

"What's wrong?" Anye asked.

"That's not a good sign that means trouble." Jack answered her.

"What kind of trouble?" Anye asked.

"It's a warning signal from the north pole," Jack said about to run, but Anye stopped him.

"Jack wait!" she called out to him before he could have the wind take him away, "Are you leaving?" she asked.

Jack turned around to see her sad face appear in front of him. The thought of leaving her didn't feel right, in fact, it didn't feel acceptable. Waking up alone in this world, she had so much to learn. But he had to go. He bit his lip thinking for a second.

"Anye?" he asked walking back towards her, "Would you like to see Santa's workshop?"

Anye's eyes widen. "That is an understatement, "she said, "Of Course I would love to see Santa's Workshop!" she said fluttering up in the air again excited and falling straight back down on her feet again.

"Great, you can meet everyone, but I have an important meeting with them, so you can explore or something while I appear for the meeting," Jack said solving everything out. "No worries."

Anye had questions to ask Jack about what he meant about an important meeting and everyone, but she had her hand grabbed before she could even open her mouth, and Jack took her straight up into the sky and onto the direction of the Aurora Borealis.

Anye could only be amazed as what was waiting for her to see in the North Pole.


	6. Chapter 5 The Call of the Red Lights

Chapter 5 The Call of the Red Lights

The wind in her face, cold and icy felt like needles to the face, but then splashes of icy water to make her hot face relished like she was washing her face on a sweaty and hot day. When it got colder and colder, Anye was able to fly faster and didn't notice she let go of Jack's hand when she started flying the same speed as him. They flew from what seemed to be long lakes and mountains until it felt they reach the highest point of the alps when they appeared in the North Pole. Anye could see that somehow the story books weren't the same as she saw of Santa's home. Santa Claus, St. Nick, or the Guardian of Wonder, whichever you called him, he was a big jolly man, fearless, and giving. To all the children's favorite hero and holiday, he sent billions of toys to billions of kids all over the world in one night, just like in legends, he lived in the North Pole, and had his own workshop with elves making toys, or so we thought.

Santa's home was built straight inside the blizzard alps, and the colder and colder it was, the more Anye felt she was in an air conditioner, but still feeling hot as the sun, being in a snow blizzard was probably the most relaxing thing she's ever felt. So upon flying to the North Pole, she could see the home was connected to other pointy and snowy mountains, having old elevated moats transported back and forth, and upon see the transporters was giant furry looking monsters.

"What are those?" Anye pointed out.

Jack looked down to see the abdominal snowmen were heading back ad forth with supplies and what not, going through a small gorge into the mountain that must be the supply gatherings for the toys to make.

"Those are Yetis, they help make the toys," Jack answered.

They flew down to one of the front doors imbedded inside of the gorges of the mountain, where a tall Yeti was waiting for someone to arrive.

"I thought the elves make the toys," Anye added.

Jack chuckled, "So did I."

He waved his staff at the familiar Yeti who glared at him and pointed two fingers to his eyes and then turned to point back at Jack.

"Nice to see you too Phil." Jack added and the Yeti let the doors open for them both to enter.

Anye stared at the Yeti as she entered through, and Yeti stared back almost wide eyes star gazed at her appearance. When they got in, it smelled like Christmas was just every day in this place. The place was so tall, and wide, there were an open roof from the ceiling that let it rain snow inside. The walls were maroon and Christmas red, the floor was cobbled stones, yet the smell of fireplaces and roasting chestnuts filled the air, along with pinecones, peppermint candy canes, warmed cider, and pined trees and there were decorated Christmas trees at every corner of this sphere shaped building. It went down and up like a sliding spiral stair case. Holly was placed up on the walls; a large choo choo train was running on the tracks of the railings of the whole building, two of the going up and down. Ice air planes and air balloons were flying and floating around, Yetis from downstairs that Anye could see when she bend to look over the railing were scrambling about, painting, chiseling, hammering, and testing toys all around, and there were the elves. Anye followed Jack as much as she could, but she fluttered up in the air so excited, trying to take it all in seconds, when she found below her were tiny pink blushed elves with jingling pointy hats, looking up pointing at her as she flew above them. They made squeaky and funny noises and talked perhaps in another language, but to her surprise, the elves were cleaning, putting up lights, or trying to make toys but there were really screwing around and hurting themselves. The Yetis were the professional toy makers, the elves were either cooking, cleaning, and even stopped to push around the other or complain in their squeaky little language that no one seemed to understand.

"This is nothing like the stories said," Anye said.

"You'll find that a lot about the things you're going to see," Jack said. And they walked in to find the big four waiting.

There Anye only stood still. When they appeared, Jack was welcomed, to her surprise first by a tall and ragged Santa Claus who had a thick Russian accent. He was Jolly and big with a jolly belly, but he hat tattoos on his arms, both inked from one arm to the other 'Naughty and Nice'. With Big blue eyes and a big welcoming hug as if he hasn't seen Jack in a while. Then a fairy vastly flew up to Jack, never touching the ground, she appeared with the colors of a Ethnic peacock, but the fast flying wings of a hummingbird. She even had three or four miniature version fairies humming around her. She came in hugging Jack and asking how he was like an old friend or motherly kind of way. Then Jack went to say hi to a tall rabbit. But, Anye couldn't believe that was an ordinary rabbit. At first, he looked like he was from the SWAT or something, but he spoke with an Australian accent, had warrior markings on his face and arms, he was tall and had a boomerangs warn on his back. Then a tiny yet quiet figure came to wave to Jack, shaping pictures above his head to seem as if he was forming his words through shapes and images. He was golden and sand like, an unbelievable seen for he was very short, but so quiet and yet fragile looking, Anye wasn't sure if he was what she thought he may actually be.

They all welcomed Jack like they haven't seen him in perhaps years, but soon Jack had to interrupt them so he can tell something to Santa.

"Hey North, I hope you don't mind, but you called in on a bad timing," Jack said to the big red jolly man.

"I'll say, what's it this time?" the tall rabbit asked.

They all didn't seem to notice Anye was in the room standing there, but she slowly hid herself behind a Christmas tree that was next to the door, because she wasn't sure on how to react or say anything, in fact she felt a little afraid seeing all of what appeared to be the biggest childhood legends all standing together in one room.

"Well wait," Jack stopped the rabbit, "I had to bring someone with me."

"Who? This is an emergency call Jack, not a friendly tea chat," the big Santa that Jack seemed to call North said, setting his rules.

"Yeah well I couldn't leave her," Jack told back to North. "The moon just brought her here," he then said in a low whisper.

"Man in Moon brought another spirit to our world? How is that your business to bring her here?" North then asked.

"Because I'm willing to help her," Jack whispered back.

Anye felt she should leave.

"But Jack," the Hummingbird fairy stepped in, "I'm sure she's been around a few years to know what the Man in Moon wants her to do."

"Twenty minutes," Jack then put in.

"What?" the Rabbit said.

The little sandy man shaped a 20:00 time over his head with a question mark.

"Twenty minutes is how long she's been around since the Moon woke her up," Jack explained.

He turned to face all four of the legends, "I'm just asking if it's okay if she explore around is all." Jack mentioned looking at North as reasonable as he can.

"Let me see her," North decided.

Jack turned around to find that Anye was gone, but then found she was hiding as he saw stain glass rainbow marks on the wall being reflected by the Christmas lights Anye was hiding behind.

"Anye?" he called out her name, "It's okay you can come out." he gestured. "Meet my friends, the Guardians."

Anye stepped out slowly from the behind the tree to face the big four. Her eyes widen with nervousness and their eyes widen with amazement.

"Well now," North started to say.

The sandy man had a bolar hat appear on his head and he took it off and bowed. Anye to his reaction bowed as well, taking her wings like her own dress and folding them down as she bowed and curtsied back to the sandy man himself.

"Is that who I think it is?" the warrior rabbit asked.

"Well hello!" the hummingbird fairy said cheerfully.

"Hello," Anye said weakly.

"Do not be nervous," North mentioned, "Please by all means come!" he welcomed. "I am North, the Guardian of Wonder," he said and took her hand and kissed it. "This is Sandy, the Guardian of dreams," he also introduced to what Anye was right about, the Sandman who bowed his bolar hat to her.

"I'm Bunnymund," the tall and warrior like rabbit came to shake Anye's hand. "Guardian of Hope."

"A pooka, I never knew the Easter Bunny was a pooka," Anye said.

"Well now," the Easter Rabbit was impressed, "You know my kind."

"And I'm Toothiana, or you can call me Tooth!" the Hummingbird fairy came up with her little flying fairies appearing with her. "The Guardian of Memories.

"Memories, just like in the stories, you help me remember the happiness in my life," Anye practically felt she was reading out from memory of her old story books she had back at home.

"That's right!" Tooth said with appreciation and glee and then quickly snuck her fingers into her mouth to look at her teeth. "Ooooh! such nice gums and clean fixtures!"

Anye tried to move her head for Tooth to take her fingers out, when she did, Anye felt a little stunned.

"And you know Jack Frost, the Guardian of Fun" North added.

"Of course," Anye said turning to Jack, "Fun is a perfect fit."

Jack smiled beaming almost under his pale white frosty skin. "So she can explore and we can talk business?" Jack added.

"Of course," North said understanding.

Anye's wings fluttered excited and leaped with a squeal and flew straight over the railing to down where the Yetis were making the toys.

"Okay..." Jack said staring off at Anye's disappearance, but then changing his expression turned to face North, "What seems to be the problem?"

"Look," North said pointing to his large metal golden globe.

This globe spun in the axis slow enough to view each and every continent that had glowing light spots covering the continents and seas and islands to show each light was a child. Some were glowing gold, but most, strangely, were glowing red.

"The lights are red," Jack noticed. "What does that mean?"

"I've never seen them glow red before," Tooth said. She and obviously all the guardians who had their own domain had their own globe to show there are plenty of children in the world existing, but why they glow is show that each of those lights is a child that believes in them. Jack has yet to find his own domain and have his own globe to view the children of the world, but it seems what Jack does as a Guardian leads him to probably think he doesn't need one.

"Red lights usually mean something bad," Bunnymund added.

"Yeah, but what?" Jack asked.

"That is just it," North stepped in to explain, "Never have I seen them glow red, but if they glow red, something is happening to the children."

"Is it even our problem?" Tooth asked.

"Some have turned from red to suddenly black as well," North said pointing to what seems to be the Philippines and Eastern continents were already glowing black dots.

All Guardians except for Jack gasped. Sandy's face appeared silently screaming in terror.

"W-Wait, what does that mean?" Jack asked confused. Being a Guardian, he was still new to the gang, but new to the fact there are other troubles that he has yet know about, or other enemies besides Pitch Black, the Boogie Man.

"It means a child has died," Tooth explained.

"D-died?" Jack stumbled over the word, disbelieving it.

"Yes, they never appear black unless they are dying from something or someone of our kind is causing," North explained.

"You mean someone like us, legends and what not, they are the ones killing those children?" Jack asked.

"Yeah but why?" Bunnymund asked. "If they get killed, they won't be believed in or heard of like us."

"And if the children die, there will be a lot of lost souls not able to remember or hope or dream or wonder anymore, or even have fun." Tooth explained.

"Besides us ceasing to exist, we must stop whoever is taking these children's lives. And find out why!" North said.

"Then let's go!" Jack ordered, "We can't waist any more time on this!" he realized how foolish he was bringing Anye with him, and felt he needed to step into this thinking clearly as much as he can.

Before them leaving, Jack came flying around to find Anye in the workshop was painting little Russian doll cups, with the elves around her trying to do the same thing, and a Yetti trying to get the elves from stop painting so he can finish the sets.

"Anye I have to go," Jack said to her, which she looked up in alerted response to his decision.

"Why?" she asked.

"Listen, there's big trouble outside that I need to go stop," Jack explained," There are children in danger right now, and as a Guardian I need to protect them."

"What I'm trying to say is, there's so much I must tell you, but for now I have to go, please wait for me to come back."

"Jack, what's the emergency though, is there anything I can help?" Anye asked him.

"Not now," Jack wrapped up, "But I have to go." And he flew straight back up to the railing and jumped off to follow the rest of the guardians.

Speechless, Anye followed, flying after him and found that the five Guardians were running and going down an elevator shaft, barely; she flew and squeezed in to follow Jack.

When they went down a corridor and through an icy cave, Anye went flying straight up to Jack.

"I don't understand, what do I do then? Just wait for you?" Anye asked him.

Jack was surprise to find she was there, "Yes! Wait for me! I'll come back!" he said running out the corridor and coming out to see a large red technical sled came out being pulled by large reindeer passing by.

"I'm sorry Anye, but I don't think this is a mission for you to come," Tooth added as they all got into the sled. "It was nice meeting you!"

"Bunny get in!" North ordered as he took Bunnymund by the neck and placed him back in the sleigh.

Bunnymund was trying to walk away from the sleigh as soon as it pulled up.

"No No! Not again, I'm not going in that bloody sled of yours!" Bunnymund complained.

"No choice, we are in sled now, so we go now!" North summed up the situation as fast as he could.

Yetis and Elves dashing screwed and hammered away to make sure the sleigh was in good condition. Then it fired up torpedo rockets in the back, Bunnymund holding on to dear life on the sleigh, Sandy sitting calmly as well as Tooth, and Jack saluting to Anye before they launched away. Anye could only hear the roaring exhaust and the rocket torpedoes from the back of the sleigh until it faded away.

Anye stood there motionless looking back at what was gone before actually realizing it was gone. The yetis and elves started finishing up and going back to their work, when Anye noticed one of the yetis was waiting for her to go take her back to the corridor.

"I think..." Anye thought out loud, now turning to talk to the Yeti who was waiting for her.

"I think I'm going to go home," she said to the yeti, who gave a sad moan and expression back to her.

It was fun while it lasted, but she couldn't believe how bothersome and in the way she was with being with Jack and her childhood heroes. In fact, she felt almost like she shouldn't have begged Jack to stay with her back in Paris. She needs to go home, she needs to see her parents and maybe finish homework from her classes, oh and see if Johnny and Abby need to be babysitted. Her parents could be worried about her, that's right her parents. She almost forgot she had a family waiting at home back in Seattle. And she suddenly wondered how Carvin was doing too. The thought never came to her as to why she was at that lake where she saw Jack, in fact she must have been ice skating again, but why in a dress, when she felt so hot standing in a winter blizzard?

She just thought that once she got home, she could plop onto her mattress, and maybe paint the rest of the feelings she had of the day so far. That's right, she almost forgot that she paints for fun, and she does commissions, and wonders when it would be good time to go around exploring for rooms to rent out for a gallery. She had almost forgot she had school to go to, and maybe has to find a good story to read to Johnny and Abby to help them go to sleep. She forgot she could as well audition in that spring play they had at her college, maybe she could sing a part to get in? Anye completely forgot she had those things to do and try out.

So the yeti helped her way out of the North Pole and she waved good bye to Phil, and she slowly flew up to the sky and out of the snowy alps, trying to think which way was home. She flew slowly and try to fly a little faster, not trying to think how stupid she felt or appeared to the Guardians. When flying as much as she can, she suddenly heard a crying, the sound of a baby crying. Hearing it, she found that she flew herself out of the blizzard Alps and down the green mountains of a deserted green field, with mist of clouds flowing by and whatnot. She walked around until she can hear the crying sound closer. When she flew closer to the ground, she saw ahead a red mare laying down on the ground, as if it was asleep. But the sight of it was off.

When she came closer, the patch of green land was just a grey and dead looking field. The mare lying down on the field wasn't breathing at all. Not far from it was a rundown old home with what appeared to look abandoned, but there were animals, or what seemed to be animals around. In fact, when Anye came closer to the mare, she saw from it were dead chickens scrambled all over the front and side of the house. It didn't look right. But the crying could still be heard. When she was just about to pass by the mare to see if the baby crying was coming from inside the house, she heard something from above.

She heard Christmas chimes from afar and looked up to find probably the most awesome part of her childhood come to life. North's sled coming for a landing where she was, and from there she could see Bunnymund, Sandy, North, Tooth and Jack all in the sled. But Jack noticed Anye first. When they landed Jack came first out of the sleigh, calling Anye's name.

"Anye, what are you doing here?" Jack came towards her. And then he appeared looking around and saw the mare.

"What happened?" he then asked looking a little confused of the place, in his expression hoping it wasn't caused by Anye.

"I heard a baby crying, and I came here to see if ti was okay, and then..." She gestured over to the mare which she bend down to see if it was okay. But it wasn't breathing.

"Something happened here," Anye said.

"Shouldn't she be at the North Pole?" Bunnymund came over to see what was going on.

"What are you doing here? I thought you had to go protect some children?" Anye asked both Jack and Bunny.

North, Tooth and Sandy came over as well, "We are, we came to investigate about the red lights, and this is the nearest place to start," North said.

"I thought I told you to stay in the workshop," Jack said bending over to see Anye eye to eye, realizing the mare itself wasn't alive.

"I felt that I was just in the way, so I decided to go home, and that's when I found this place," Anye explained.

"What happened to the horse?" Tooth asked.

"It-It feels like it got sick and died," Anye said slowly stroking the mare's hare on it's neck.

And then as she stroke it, the mare started to slowly breathe heavily and then leap up from its feet. They all jump from its awakening, and the horse that started to get afraid and jump up and down on his front hooves saw Anye and tried to get her attention.

"Anye watch out!" Jack shouted to Anye.

But Anye put her hands out for the horse to stop jumping and face her eyes, and when it did, she tried to tell it to calm down and ask what was wrong.

"Shh, it's okay, it's okay," Anye said to the mare, she got it to stay still and stroke it's long nose to look into its eyes, "It's okay, what's wrong, tell me what's wrong?" she asked it.

The mare went on galloping over to the home and then the baby crying started up again.

"The baby," Anye fluttered her way over to the door.

"What baby?" Bunnymund asked.

"Don't you hear its cries?" Anye asked as she shoved the door open to get into the house.

"Anye, I don't hear anything," Jack stated.

Anye went around the small home to find and man and woman were unconscious sitting at a table, as if they passed away in the middle of breakfast.

"This isn't right," Tooth looked at the bodies.

Anye flew her way up to the small stairs to hear the crying getting louder for her, and there in a small cradle bed there a baby was laying under the covers. But hearing it's cries, Anye felt the scene was off, because the baby wasn't even moving its mouth or face or it's whole body when she heard it crying.

"Anye, we should leave this place," Jack followed her up the stairs to tell her, but he saw Anye holding the baby in her arms already.

Jack stared down at the baby, realizing that was greyish blue, barely alive looking. Anye unfolded some of the blankets under to take out the baby's hand.

"I don't understand, how come I hear its cries, but it's not moving his mouth?" Anye asked Jack.

The rest of the Guardians came upstairs to see what was going on.

"Jack, what's happening to me?" Anye asked him.

Jack stood there, trying to find the first word in head to say to her, but he watched her as she looked down at the baby and started to bounce it a little like it really was crying trying to calm it down.

"Be Brave little one, make a wish for each sad little tear, hold your head up, they'll know what is near, someone's waiting for you," Anye started to sang, and slowly, the greyish pigment of the baby started to fade.

'Don't cry little one.

There'll be a smile where a frown use to be

You'll be part of the love that you see.

Someone's waiting for you.

Always keep a little prayer in your pocket

and you're sure to see the light.

Soon there'll be joy and happiness

and your little world will be bright

Have faith little one

'Til your hopes and your wishes come true.

You must try to be brave little one.

Someone's waiting to love you'

A sneeze was heard from the baby, and then it lit up with pinkish pigment skin, glowing bright and alive, it made happy noises and smiled waving its small little arms to Anye, as if trying to hug her.

The Guardians all lit up with happiness, Jack especially when he looked at Anye, proud of her.

"How did you do that?" Jack asked her.

"I-I don't know, I just sang to him," Anye tried to explained.

"Well whatever you did, you brought him back to life!" North said excited. "This must be what you do for the children of the world."

"Children of the world?" Anye looked at North confused, "I only deal with two children and I babysit them."

"No? but this must be your center," North analyzed.

"Center?" Anye asked him.

"You know, what your meant to the children of the world, you must be a healer or something," Tooth said flying over to kneel next to Anye and to look at the baby.

"What? I have yet to know what I can do with my life, I kinda planned on figuring that out once I'm out of school," Anye explained.

"School? Who says you need to go to school to do that?" Bunnymund asked. Sandy of course nodded agreeing with Bunny.

"Ah guys?" Jack interrupted, "She doesn't know any of that stuff yet, she just came here."

"What do they mean Jack?" Anye asked Jack.

Jack scratched the back of his head, "I wanted to tell you soon, I just didn't know how, and I didn't expect a mission to come up in the middle of it either."

"Jack is trying to explain that Man in Moon chose you to be a part of legendary world, much like us, much like others such as the uh.." North stopped explaining to think.

"Like the leprechaun!" Tooth suggested, and Sandy made a clover over his head, as well as a arrow shooting through a heart, "Or right Sandy! or Cupid, or even the fairy godmother, or Mother Goose," Tooth further explained.

"Like a Guardian?" Anye asked.

"Uh no, Leprechaun ain't a Guardian," Bunnymund scoffed.

"But all those fairy tale stories I read and believed in all my life are real? And now, I'm part of that?" Anye asked again pretty much asking herself, "But why?"

"He chose you for some purpose," Jack said, "I didn't know why he chose me for 300 years, but when I was chosen to be a guardian, I found out why he chose and made me into Jack Frost."

"But, I have a life at home," Anye said. They all looked at her a bit baffled.

"I have a family, and I have to go to school and babysit Johnny and Abbey, I can't really be like you guys," She told them.

"If you wish to go home, then you may," North said not bothering to explain why she can't.

Anye stood up to take the baby downstairs, where she found the parents dead at their table. She looked at the food and even their faces. She gave the baby to Tooth to hold and the Guardians carefully watched her as she picked up their food from the table. She looked at the vegetables and bread and meat, and with her touch the black and rotting food covered in flies somehow dissipated in her hands and changed back into healthy and ripe colors, carrots and lettuce went back to orange and green. With the touch of her fingertips the parents came to life somehow and the pigment of their skins came back to normal, so did their eyes and faces, alive looking. Anye without realizing it brought the home back to life, the food on the table even changed back to regular and the baby seeing noticing the changes squirmed in Tooth's arms, wanting to be free.

Anye took the baby, with her touch, the house somehow lit up with brightness from the sun outside, and the plants in the house, frail and dead, sprung back to life as she passed by to put the baby in the mother's lap, who didn't even see Anye or her baby because she was rubbing her eyes as if she took a very long and hard nap. Once she put the baby softly on his mother's lap, she grabbed Jack by the shirt and hurried her way out of the house, as if not wanting to be seen when they woke up for the awkward meeting. When she came out, pacing, the chickens plopped back up to life, clucking and running around, the field turning green, and the sun shining down to bring out colors outside.

"You seeing this?" Bunny said to North. "She could be the answer to solving the red light problem!"

"We do need her, we can't just let her go back home yet," Tooth said as well.

"But she doesn't know," Jack said watching Anye walking farther to go pet the mare that she unknowingly brought back to life.

"She doesn't know what Jack?" Tooth asked.

"She's the girl who passed away on Easter Sunday," Bunnymund explain coming over to face Jack, "Isn't she?"

"She fell into the lake I froze for her to skate on, and then the moon decided to reborn her the way he did with me." Jack explained.

"She fell trying to save a little girl from getting hurt from a bunch of these bullies and they pushed her off the hill and she fell into the ice that I made for her." He guiltily explained again, feeling at most terrible of what has been done.

"That is why your helping her?" North asked. "Because you feel responsible for what happened?"

"Hey! if I didn't go and try to freeze that lake, she would of fallen into the river and swimming her way back to the shore alive!" Jack argued back. "Of course I'm responsible, and partly it's because the Moon took away my powers!"

"Your powers?" Tooth asked.

"Yes, I couldn't help her when she was fighting them," Jack said, "I was helpless for those few seconds and when she fell and..." He couldn't say it.

"Then my powers came back," he then said, "He planned on her dying then bringing her back," Jack said remembering the event, "But why couldn't he have done that without having her die? Why couldn't he just change her into Anye when she was still alive?" He then kept questioning.

"Maybe he didn't plan it," Tooth said, "Maybe it was an accident, and he brought her back for you to not feel like it's your fault?"

"If that's why he brought her back, why do I still feel guilty about it?" Jack asked Tooth.

"Maybe it is redemption," North suggested, "Now that we know what she can do, you can help her now realize what she is meant for in this world, you can help her realize that the life she had is gone only to be revived to make anew."

"Will take her back," Bunnymund said, "But you gotta try to explain to her that it's been 12 years since that Easter Sunday, and you gotta try and convince her that we need her help."

Jack turned to looker at Anye who was lying down with the mare, watching it roll around in the grass.

Jack came over to sit next to Anye. "Will take you home," he told her.

"Jack," Anye said getting up and so did Jack, "I'm sorry about everything."

"Sorry about what?" He asked, "There's nothing to be sorry about, you shouldn't feel that way. I should've checked first before taking you to the North Pole, it's all my fault."

"No!" Anye denied, "How can it be, you took me and shown me the most amazing places, and we did such awesome things together, and your friends, the Guardians, I'm so grateful to meet them, it's like everything that I kept believing in since I was little makes my whole life feel...I don't know! But so much better, now I have so many stories to tell Abby and Johnny when I get home. And Carvin would never believe what I did in Paris! I'm happy to finally meet you again Jack," Anye said to him relieved and satisfied. "I'm just worried about the people who love me back at home, they might be missing me."

Jack nodded agreeing; only still looking troubled. He pointed out his staff to North's sled, "Shall we?" he asked.

Anye looked at him and the sled and back again, "Are you serious?" she asked him excited.

Jack nodded his head smiling to get in the sleigh, Anye squeaked and flew straight in the sleigh waiting for the rest of the Guardians to come.

"When we get to Seattle, I have to tell you something," Jack told her.

Anye nodded looking worried and then North and the rest of the guardians came jumping in.

"Okay, so where are we going?" North asked.

"Seattle!" Anye said back.

"Okay, Seattle it is!" North said, and he brought out a snow globe and threw it straight at the sky which opened a portal for them to enter.

They launched straight into the portal and out into the sky of Seattle. Where Anye looked down at the view, touching the clouds, she saw her school and then way down the downtown streets and parks she was first familiar with when she first moved into the city. There they could land and she could walk her way to back home, like she used to.


End file.
